Azerbaijani cultural figure Sajjad Colani shared a video in front of the Registration Office in Ardabil:
“Despite our two-month haste, she is not allowed to name her baby in Turkish. The Ardabil City Registry Office said that the name we wanted to give to our daughter in Ardabil was sent to a team of three Persian language teachers in Tehran to investigate and issue a permit.”
Officials at the department, as well as Jolani, said the baby’s name had not been verbally confirmed by the Tehran delegation, and that the baby’s family should choose another name instead.
Sajjad Colani’s name for his daughter was Ayil and he insists on giving it. Colani said that the name Ayil was not approved, because the ruling system in Iran hated Azerbaijani society and non-Persian names in Iran, and feared that these names would cause awakening in nations.
According to videos shared by families whose babies are not allowed to be given non-Persian names, and reports from various local and human rights websites, the Iranian Registry Office is processing bans on naming names that run counter to the ideological interests of the Iranian state.
It should be noted that the right to name a newborn child was enshrined in Article 7 of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
