IMPACT-se has published it’s updated Iran report, analyzing new sets of textbooks in the Iranian curriculum created for the current 2021-2022 academic year.
Students in Iran are encouraged to engage in militant activity to realize Iranian hegemony in the region.
While world powers and Iran appear close to an agreement to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, Iran’s curriculum appears to prepares students for global war to achieve the Islamist-Khomeinist revolution and Iranian expansionism as early as the first grade, a new report shows.
According to the report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an international research and policy organization that monitors and analyzes education around the world, students in Iran are encouraged to engage in militant activity to realize Iranian hegemony in the region.
The findings indicate a greater degree of radicalization than in previous IMPACT-se reports, “Iran’s Global War Curriculum” (2006-2007) and “Iranian Education: The Continuous Revolution” (2016).
The attitude to Israel in textbooks is stark: the curriculum is clear in calling for a total war against Israel until it is completely eradicated. Israel’s destruction is presented not just as an ideal, but as a realistic and acheivable goal.
Students are taught that they are constantly under threat from the United States, which wants to prevent Iran from spreading Islamic culture worldwide. The curriculum attacks the United States and praises the slogan “Death to America!”
Attaining nuclear power is glorified as a technological achievement noteworthy of both pride and praise. Nuclear scientists are presented as martyrs similarly to fallen Iranian soldiers. Female martyrs are celebrated and child martyrdom is glorified, while students are encouraged to join jihadi groups.
According tot he IMPACT-se report, the curriculum is rife with antisemitic rhetoric, as well as a hatred of Israel and Zionism. Zionism is portrayed as an evil organization of wealthy Jewish capitalists manipulating the United States and other countries for malicious gain. Lessons encourage students to attend anti-Israeli demonstrations and carry “Death to Israel” signs. Students are taught to praise Palestinian rocket fire and attempts to bring “the Zionist occupation to its knees.” Textbooks teach that the Torah was utilized by Europeans to categorize women as second-class citizens, the Holocaust is omitted and Jewish history in the Middle East is ignored.
The importance of Iranian hegemony in the Arab Middle East is emphasized and students are prepared for the advancement of Iran to assume control over Southwest Asia – with a clear priority being control of the Arab Middle East.
The Muslim Brotherhood and other Sunni Islamists are praised as ideological partners in one “Islamic Awakening.” The world is divided between followers of Iran’s global revolution and those opposing it. Students are taught that foreign militia members are now part of the Iranian regime, and any opposition is seen as an enemy.