Iran's Student Basij is a quickly growing and powerful force

TEHRAN — The early morning chill was still in the air when the children, some as young as 7, were lined up in front of their school for a ceremony during which they were instructed to shout, "Death to America," and hurl shoes at effigies of Uncle Sam, or the Great Satan, as he's known here.

The event, held at schools across the country, was part of the annual celebration of the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It was organized by the Student Basij, a subdivision of Iran's powerful paramilitary movement, which in recent years has evolved into a powerful defender of the current regime.

The Basij first made a name for itself during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, providing an endless stream of youthful volunteers, ready to walk across minefields or brave Iraqi fire to clear a way for regular Iranian troops.

The movement fielded at least 550,000 youths during the course of the eight-year war. Thirty-six thousand were killed or were reported missing in action.

More recently, the Basij has acquired a reputation as a domestic security force loyal to the Iranian regime. It was deployed on the streets of Tehran to counter the widespread protests that followed last year's presidential election.

Currently, the Student Basij has a presence in 54,000 of the country's 150,000 schools and is expanding fast.

Once limited to adolescents, in recent months the organization has begun recruiting younger children as well. Since November, 6,000 "Basij centers" have opened in primary schools across the country.

The commander of the Student Basij, Mohammad Saleh Jokar, has said the primary schools are being targeted to familiarize youngsters with the "Basij culture, so that they will be fully prepared when they go on to join its ranks in a few years' time." Jokar asserts that 4.6 million of the 14 million schoolchildren in Iran have signed up to the Basij, although such figures are hard to corroborate.

Military prowess with a strong ideological slant is an important part of the Basij's image and forms an important part of the training the organization provides in schools.

Student Basij Day on Oct. 30 commemorates the death of Hossein Fahmideh, a 13-year-old boy who strapped grenades to himself and threw himself under an Iraqi tank in 1980. At the time, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini said the teenager was Iran's real leader.