Child Recycler

Abdulreza, 12, digs through garbage for recyclable plastics, in front of the exclusive Carat store, northern Tehran.

“I am Afghani!”

The government of Iran does not allow children of the undocumented Afghani refugees to attend the public school system.

Imam Khomeini & School Books

First page of Farsi Writing book for first graders:

"One of those close to Imam Khomeini recalls: one day Imam told me that 'when I go to Hosseinieh to see people and speak, I think of children. I love children so much that if during speaking, a child cries or waves his hand for me, I loose my concentration and I think of that child.'"

The Day Imam Khomeini Came Home

Mehdi Shariati, 7, Village of Kharaghani, near Shahrood, NE Iran.

"I started school this year. I like it a lot because I'm in there with my cousin, who chases me on the way home.

"This is my drawing of the day Imam Khomeini came [to Iran from France in 1979]. That's his plane and those are flowers falling to the ground. And those are mountains in the back."

Ten minutes of going through Mehdi's notebooks was all it took to see why Mehdi more than likely is getting a better education than most American children. There are signs of a partnership between his teacher and his parents. There is the expectation that the his schooling continues at home.

Each and every page of his homework was signed, scored and commented by the teacher. The better work was stamped: "One Hundred Praises to My Good Son."

"They are under orders to check every page," Mehdi's father, Abdul-Vahid Shariati says.
"There are even inspectors who come and check the notebooks at random to make sure the teachers are doing their work."

There was a hand-written message to Mehdi's mother on top of one page, asking her to come to meet the teacher. Obviously, the teacher was confident that the mother goes through her son's homework.

"The teachers ask the parents to come to school so they can teach the parents how to work with the kids at home. They want to make sure they teach the same way the kids are taught at school," Shariati said.