Iran launches military training for women in ‘Jan-Fada’ campaign

• Iran has held its first military training course specifically for women taking part in the “Jan-Fada” campaign.
• The training comes as the campaign moves toward organizing 1,000 volunteer resistance battalions across Iran.

Iran has held its first military training course for selected women participating in the “Jan-Fada” campaign, as Tehran expands a nationwide volunteer mobilization program that includes military and emergency training.

The course was held during Iran’s Sacred Defense Week and covered military skills, first aid, guerrilla tactics, survival techniques and preparedness for harsh conditions, according to Iranian reports.

The training is part of a broader program announced earlier this month by the “Jan-Fada of Iran” popular headquarters, which said it had coordinated with Iran’s armed forces to begin training and organizing 1,000 national resistance battalions.

The campaign has called on volunteers to take part in military and emergency-response courses and said participants would be organized into popular battalions. Iranian officials have said the training is being offered to both men and women and is structured at basic, intermediate and advanced levels.

Women have already featured prominently in the campaign’s public activities. Iranian media reported in April that women and girls participated in a “Jan-Fada” gathering in Tehran, with images showing some participants carrying firearms.

Iranian officials have also announced female participation in large-scale “Jan-Fada” military exercises. A women’s Basij official in Tehran said earlier this month that women would participate in an exercise involving 110,000 members of the campaign’s battalions across Tehran province.

The latest training course therefore appears to be part of a wider effort to establish a structured volunteer network with military and emergency-response capabilities, rather than the announcement of a separate women’s military force.

The campaign’s expansion comes amid heightened regional military tensions and a broader push by Iranian authorities to increase civilian preparedness and participation in national defense.