What if your village has no access to safe drinking water? Is this simply an ordinary problem? If a child cannot easily access essential services because they do not have a birth certificate, is that simply their fate? If there is no school or adequate healthcare available, should people just accept these conditions?
Many of us have lived with such problems for so many years that we sometimes begin to see them as normal.
But an important question arises:
Does something become normal and acceptable simply because it has been happening for years?
The answer to this question brings us to the concept of a "right."
A right is something that every person is entitled to enjoy and that is also recognised by law.
Rights are not favours granted to us by others.
When a child has the right to education, it is not a favour. When a patient has the right to access healthcare, it is not a favour. When a person has the right to legal identity and to be issued a birth certificate, it is not a favour. When people have the right to live in safety, it is not a favour.
These are rights, and they must be respected.
This leads us to another question:
Who is entitled to these rights?
To understand this, we must first explore the concept of citizenship.
A citizen is a person who belongs to a political community and a country, and who has a legal relationship with the state.
Citizenship is more than simply living within a country's borders. A citizen has both rights and responsibilities.
Just as the law expects citizens to fulfil certain duties, citizens also have the right to expect the government to respect and protect their rights.
When we discuss citizenship rights, we are referring to this relationship between citizens and the state.
Citizenship rights are the rights that individuals enjoy as members of a society and citizens of a country. The state has a responsibility to respect and protect these rights.
In simple terms:
Citizenship rights define what responsibilities a government has towards its people and what rights people are entitled to enjoy.
Citizenship rights are based on the principle that all citizens should enjoy equal rights, regardless of ethnicity, language, religion, place of residence, wealth, or social status.
Article 19 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that all people of Iran, regardless of their ethnic group or tribe, enjoy equal rights, and that characteristics such as colour, race, and language must not create privileges.
Article 20 also states that all members of the nation are entitled to the protection of the law and enjoy human, political, economic, social, and cultural rights.
But what exactly are these rights?
Every human being has the right to a legal identity.
A birth certificate is not simply a document or a piece of paper. It is a gateway to many other rights.
Without legal identity, access to essential services can become extremely difficult.
For this reason, registering people's identities and issuing identity documents are among the important responsibilities of governments.
Article 30 of Iran's Constitution requires the government to provide free education for everyone up to the end of secondary school.
No child should be deprived of education because of poverty, where they live, or their family circumstances.
When people become ill, they should be able to access appropriate healthcare services.
Providing healthcare centres, doctors, medicines, and public health facilities is part of the government's responsibility towards its citizens.
Article 29 of Iran's Constitution recognises social security as a universal right.
People should not be left without support during illness, unemployment, disability, old age, or accidents.
People have the right to live with their lives, property, and dignity protected.
Security does not simply mean the absence of crime.
It means that people should be able to live without fear, work, and build their futures.
When two people are subject to the law, their ethnicity, language, religion, or social position should not lead to different treatment.
The law should be applied equally to everyone.
Article 34 of Iran's Constitution recognises access to justice as an undeniable right of every individual.
This means that when someone's rights are violated, they should be able to turn to the appropriate legal authorities and seek justice.
But this brings us to an important question:
What should people do when these rights are not respected?
Should citizens simply remain silent?
No.
This is where the concept of rights advocacy and civic action becomes important.
Rights advocacy means demanding that laws be implemented and rights respected through legal and peaceful civic means.
It means that citizens understand their rights and ask public officials to fulfil their responsibilities.
Rights advocacy means asking questions:
Why has this school not been built? Why does this village still lack safe drinking water? Why has this problem remained unresolved for years? Why is this public service unavailable to the people who need it?
An informed citizen understands the law, documents problems, submits written requests, uses the media and civil society organisations, asks officials for explanations, and continues to follow up.
However, just as citizens have rights, they also have responsibilities.
Citizens have responsibilities that include respecting the law, respecting the rights of others, helping to maintain public order, participating in community affairs, defending truth and justice, and, most importantly, refusing to remain indifferent to the future of their society.
There is one important point we must remember.
In a society where people do not know their rights, they can more easily be deprived of those rights.
But a society in which people are informed, ask questions, understand the law, and demand respect for their rights has a greater chance of achieving progress, justice, and development.
Understanding our rights is the first step towards advocating for them.
And informed advocacy is the beginning of change.