General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi, the head of Iran’s para-military Basij force that operates under the command of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), announced that “deliberations” were taking place between the force and the ministry of education to confront what he called the “soft war”. Naghdi further said that he was pursuing the goal adding “values of divine defense of the Iranian nation” into the “classrooms and books” particularly “books on defense teachings.”

“The expansion of the culture of selflessness and martyrdom” are the “demands” of this para-military group and his expectations from educational programs, particularly from the “research and educational planning organization.”

Prior to this, the minister Iran’s minister of education had talked of his ministry’s intention to add “selflessness and martyrdom” as subjects to the content of school books. Hamid-Reza Haji Babai had also mentioned the establishment of “ten thousand Quran schools” and had called them “autobahns for martyrdom and humanity.”

According to general Naghdi, “the 2-year defense training classes that are taught in middle and high school are somehow dry and classic and so this year teachers have been trained to change the atmosphere of the classes by adding the values of divine defense to them.” Divine defense (defae moghadas) is a term coined to refer to the 8-year war Iran had with Iraq for most of the 1980s.

The head of the Basij explained an even more expanded goals for the Basij and said the force intended to have a “greater direct involvement” in the procurement and editing of teaching books that includes defense training.

Ideological changes in the contents of school books have been on the agenda of the ministry of education since Ahmadinejad came to office, particularly since the beginning of his second presidential term.

The Elimination of History from School Books

On September 22, 2009, the head of the history group at the ministry of education spoke of new changes in history books at the middle school level and said, “Among the new changes, military history and the history of kings will be eliminated from history school books.”

According to Yaghoub Tavakoli, the new books on history at the middle school level will replace political and military history, including those of kings and wars, with cultural and civilizational perspectives. “Emperors and warriors such as Mongol’s Genghis Khan or Sultan Mohammad Shah and other emperors will be eliminated from books and replaced with civilization builders such as Khaje Nasir Tousi, Zakariya Razi, Abu Ali Sina etc, he explained.”

Following the public outcry that resulted in these comments, Hamid Reza Haji Babai, the minister of education announced in March this year that the elimination of the history of emperors from school books was a subject that had been raised by the media, after which a working group had been created to study this and that it had not till then announced its decision.

The remarks by the head of the Basij came just days after the head of the head of the student Basij had publicly talked of the need to “confront the soft war of the enemy” by increasing knowledge, depth and capabilities of students and gave them “top priority” in the organization.

General Jowkar said, “The general direction of measures and operations of hegemonistic powers are designed to weaken the will and destroy national unity.” He described the plans of Student Jihad to be aimed at increasing the knowledge of students for the purpose of battling the “soft war of the enemy”. He asserted that the “enemy” was engaged in activities inside and outside schools that were aimed at creating communication channels with them.

A Suitable Force for the Regime

The minister of education, who the head of Basij said is in deliberations with the Basij, has recently also spoken of a “permanent presence of the clergy” in schools. Hamid-Reza Haji Babai had said in this regard, “Theological centers can play the best role from the perspective of education of schools, as perhaps no other group or agency can have an impact on school children as much as the theology centers.”

Babai revealed new forthcoming initiatives when he said, “we intend to create a foundation for the permanent presence of clerics in schools through the cooperation of the theology centers and schools,” something that he said would increase educational and training efficiency in schools. He also said that there were plans to strengthen the basic student courses by centralizing discussions about the Quran under the supervision of clerics in schools. When students leave schools, they should have benefited from the presence of clerics there and should be useful resources for the Islamic Republic of Iran, he added.