Are these lessons free to use?

Yes. All teaching materials are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. You may adapt and redistribute with credit to iranholocaust.org.

What age range are they for?

Secondary school (14+) and undergraduate. Preview the Faces page before sharing with under-16 students.

How long does the full unit take?

Five 45-minute lessons. Shorter 45-minute and 90-minute stand-alone lessons are also provided.

Is there a printable classroom poster?

Yes — /poster.html includes 22 named victims of the 2022 uprising in printable A3 format.

Teach Iran: lesson plans, discussion questions, primary-source packets

Who is this for?

Secondary-school (ages 14+) and undergraduate educators in history, politics, gender studies, journalism, and human-rights law. Every resource is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, so you may adapt and redistribute freely with credit.

45-minute lesson — "Who was Mahsa Amini?"

Open (5 min): Show the 30-second BBC News explainer clip on Mahsa Amini's arrest.
Read (10 min): Mahsa Amini biography and 3-minute read.
Discuss (20 min): Use the questions below.
Write (10 min): One-paragraph response — "What duty, if any, does the international community have when a state kills a citizen in custody?"

90-minute lesson — "Why did the 2022 uprising happen?"

Frame (10 min): Map activity locating Iran, Kordestan, Tehran, Saqqez, Zahedan.
Read (20 min): Uprising + Hijab law.
Source analysis (30 min): In small groups, compare a UN Fact-Finding Mission excerpt, an Amnesty statement, and an IRNA press release on the same event. What language differs? What facts are omitted?
Discuss (20 min): Discussion questions.
Close (10 min): Exit ticket — name three primary sources for human-rights reporting on Iran.

Week-long unit — "Iran 1979–2026"

Day 1 — Revolution and the founding of the Islamic Republic. Read: Heritage.
Day 2 — The 1988 mass executions. Read: World + Robertson QC report.
Day 3 — 2009 Green Movement; 2019 Bloody November. Read: Timeline.
Day 4 — Mahsa Amini and Woman, Life, Freedom. Read: Mahsa Amini.
Day 5 — 2026 Crimson Winter and the Two Nights. Read: Two Nights. Assessment due.

Discussion questions

Mahsa Amini's Kurdish name was Jina. Why did her identity document say "Mahsa"? What does this tell us about the relationship between language and state power?
Iran's prosecutor-general announced in December 2022 that the morality police were "disbanded". Why did Western media report this as fact? How could the claim have been verified?
UN experts called the 2023 Chastity & Hijab Bill "gender apartheid". What test of evidence would have to be met for this to amount to a "crime against humanity"?
Iran carried out 972 executions in 2024 — the highest in 15 years. Why might executions increase during a period of weakening state legitimacy?
Compare the international response to the 1988 mass executions with the response to the 2022 uprising. What changed? What did not?

Downloadable packets

Full e-book (PDF, English) — complete long-form text.
Classroom poster set — 22 named victims, printable.
Timeline 1979–2026 (JSON) — drop into Notion, Airtable, or a slideshow.
Named victims dataset (JSON).
Sources & bibliography.

A note on age-appropriateness

This material includes accounts of killing, torture and sexual violence. Preview before sharing with under-16 students; consider redacting the most graphic photographs in Faces for younger audiences. Iranian-heritage students may have personal connections to the events — make space for that.

Teach.