Nearly 500 People Have Obtained “Alihan” Birth Certificates Through Court Cases, but the Name Is Still Banned

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Nearly 500 People Have Obtained “Alihan” Birth Certificates Through Court Cases, but the Name Is Still Banned

2026.08.13, 12:42

According to the #Balamin_Adi campaign, Ibrahim Rashidi (Savalan), a journalist and civil rights activist, said that during a meeting with a senior official from the East Azerbaijan Civil Registration Organization, the official acknowledged that even if hundreds of people successfully obtain birth certificates for their children with “banned” Turkish names through court cases, the Civil Registration Organization still does not add those names to its list of permitted names.

Gunaz.tv

Ibrahim Savalan wrote on his Instagram page:

“One of the senior officials of the East Azerbaijan Civil Registration Organization looked at the country’s civil registration system and said that nearly 500 birth certificates have so far been issued with the name Alihan, but this name is still not included on the agency’s list of permitted names. I asked him how these people had managed to obtain birth certificates. He said that after the Civil Registration Organization rejected their requests, they went to court and filed lawsuits against the agency. The courts ruled in their favor, and they were able to obtain birth certificates bearing the name Alihan on the basis of the court rulings.”

“Just think about it: nearly 500 families, at one of the most important moments of their lives—the birth of their child—have had to put aside their work and daily lives and deal with the courts amid all these difficulties. After months of pursuing their cases and paying legal and court expenses, they eventually succeeded in obtaining birth certificates through court orders. Yet the Civil Registration Organization still does not recognize this name as permitted. This document should be thrown in the face of everyone who claims to defend people’s rights but takes no action, as well as those who completely deny the existence of the national discrimination against Turks in Iran.”

As we have previously pointed out, one of the methods used by the Civil Registration Organization to oppose Turkish names is to keep these names on the ‘list of banned names’ even after a court has ordered that they be registered. As a result, when another family applies to give their child the same name, officials refuse to issue a birth certificate, arguing that ‘the requested name does not exist in the system.’ Parents are therefore forced to go through the same difficult and costly legal process that previous families had to endure.

GUNAZ.TV

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