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All young men who reach the age of 18 must spend about two years ofcompulsory military service (Persian:سرباز,romanized: sarbazi) in theIranian army or theIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or thePolice Command.[1] Often, theGeneral staff of the armed forces of Iran chooses where people will serve, and a person cannot choose where to serve.[1] The length of conscription is between 18 months to 2 years.[1][2]
Before the1979 revolution, women who completed high school or university were also forced to serve in the non military branches like asScience Corps and Hygiene Corps .[3] However, after the establishment of the Islamic Republic, some Ayatollahs considered women's military service to be disrespectful to women by thePahlavi government and banned women's military service in Iran.[4] Therefore, Iranian women and girls were completely exempted from military service, which caused Iranian men and boys to oppose.[5] In 2023, the military is undergoing the process of relaxing the ban on women's military service.[6]
In Iran, men who refuse to go to military service are deprived of theircitizenship rights, such as employment,health insurance,[7] continuing their education at university,[8] finding a job, going abroad, opening a bank account,[9] etc.[10] Iranian boys have so far opposed mandatory military service and demanded that military service in Iran become a job like in other countries, but the Islamic Republic is opposed to this demand.[11] Some Iranian military commanders consider the elimination of conscription or improving the condition of soldiers as a security issue and one ofAli Khamenei's powers as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces,[11][12] so they treat it with caution.[13] In Iran, usually prosperous and wealthy people are exempted from conscription.[14][15] Some other boys can be exempted from conscription due to their fathers serving in theIran-Iraq war.[16][17]
This period for military service is divided into two parts; The basic training period is about 2 months in some determined garrisons, and after that, they are sent to their main destination garrison. The conscripts do not have any authority to select the branches for serving this compulsory period. When the applicants submit their applications, the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran decides to assign them to different organizations based on their needs and availability. These garrisons belong to different branches consisting of the Islamic Republic of Iran Regular Forces (Artesh): Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force (IRIAF), Khatemolanbia Air Defense Headquarters; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enqelab-e Eslami, IRGC): Ground Resistance Forces, Navy, Aerospace Force, Quds Force (special operations). There is also non-military civilian service (Persian:امریه سرباز,romanized: amriyeh sarbazi) as a substitute for military service.
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Conscription was first introduced byReza Shah in June 1925 and approved as law by theNational Consultative Assembly. At that time every male person who had reached 21 years old must serve in the military for 2 years. However, as the country needed 100,000 men and the qualified population then was 1,000,000, they announced just one man between every 10 men must serve in the military.[21][22]
Conscription time is shown in months in each year:
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Before the 1979Iranian Revolution, both men and women were conscripted. Post-revolution, the law changed and women were no longer subject to conscription.[23][24]
