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Iranian public outrage forces 'correction' of kindergarten directive

Amid widespread public outrage, Iranian authorities had to revise an official order that sought to ban religious minorities from teaching at government-run kindergartens.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Students line up to get their food at Pishtaz School in Tehran October 15, 2011. Pishtaz, the first computerised pre-school for gifted students in Iran, claims to have pioneered teaching techniques through the means of IT. Parents can watch their children's daily activities from home via CCTV cameras installed throughout the public areas in the school, which i

Images of a controversial administrative order went viral across Iranian social media in recent days, enraging large sections of the country's religious minorities. The internal document, a letter, announced new regulations at kindergartens operated by Iran's Rehabilitation Organization.

"Recruitment of religious minority members for any position at kindergartens is illegal unless those centers are exclusively hosting children of religious minorities," the letter states, bearing the signature of the director of the organization's Office for Children and Adolescent Affairs.

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