{"id":337511,"date":"2025-09-25T22:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=337511"},"modified":"2025-09-25T22:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:06:14","slug":"irans-lost-children-tens-of-thousands-of-students-sacrificed-in-the-iran-iraq-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/terrorism-a-fundamentalism\/irans-lost-children-tens-of-thousands-of-students-sacrificed-in-the-iran-iraq-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Lost Children: Tens of Thousands of Students Sacrificed in the Iran-Iraq War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Iranian
Iranian child soldiers are lined up before being dispatched to the frontlines during the eight year war with Iraq<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Each September, Iranian classrooms should ring with children\u2019s laughter and the excitement of learning. Instead, the start of the academic year evokes a painful memory: the tens of thousands of schoolchildren who never returned. Students were forced from their desks into the battlefields of the Iran\u2013Iraq war under the rule of the regime\u2019s founder Ruhollah Khomeini. Their deaths stand as one of the darkest crimes in the history of the Iranian regime, and their absence still haunts Iranian society today. Even state-linked outlets now acknowledge \u201cabout 36,000 student martyrs<\/a>,\u201d a figure repeated by senior officials on Iranian state TV. IRGC aerospace commander Amir-Ali Hajizadeh once said<\/a> that \u201cnearly 20%\u201d of war dead were students\u2014an admission carried by regime-aligned media.<\/p>\n

State-linked Iranian outlets also underscore how overwhelmingly young the war\u2019s casualty profile was. Borna News<\/em> quoted<\/a> a Tehran municipal veterans\u2019 official in 2022 asserting that \u201cover 72% of martyrs were younger than 23,\u201d alongside totals of 225,000 martyrs, 574,000 wounded veterans, and 43,000 POWs. A local governor in East Azerbaijan told Akhbar Bonab<\/em><\/a> that 48% of martyrs were under 25, 85% were under 30.<\/p>\n

\n

A young Tehran University student questions the inaction of political groups in the face of Iran\u2019s regime crimes in continuing the war while peace was within reach in Iran Iraq war. #IranRevolution<\/a> #Iran<\/a> #IranRevoIution2023<\/a>#\u0645\u0631\u06af_\u0628\u0631_\u0633\u062a\u0645\u06af\u0631_\u0686\u0647_\u0634\u0627\u0647_\u0628\u0627\u0634\u0647_\u0686\u0647_\u0631\u0647\u0628\u0631<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/7YRRTLWqLN<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) January 22, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n