Refugees are actively contributing to the COVID-19 response by sewing masks and gowns for health workers and helping to distribute aid to the poorest members of their communities. Dr. Fezzeh Hosseini, a 38-year-old Afghan refugee, was recently appointed to head up the coronavirus public outreach programme in Iran’s central Esfahan province. She is the only refugee doctor in Esfahan and provides phone consultations to Iranian and Afghan patients suffering from or at risk of contracting the coronavirus. She is also the head physician of the Razi health centre in Khomeini-Shahr, an area of Esfahan.

Rozma Ghafouri, 29, an Afghan refugee living in Iran, won the 2020 Nansen Refugee Award for the Asia region, for her commendable work helping children at risk in Shiraz, Iran. As a football coach and a youth counsellor, she draws on her own at-times harsh childhood to get young refugees and undocumented Afghans aged between 11 and 15 – out of work and back into school.

UNHCR welcomes the Government of Iran’s move to give nationality to thousands of children born to Iranian mothers and non-Iranian fathers. According to the Government, nearly 75,000 children are eligible for Iranian citizenship under a new nationality law, which was amended in 2019 to allow children under 18 years to apply for the identity documents. By allowing Iranian mothers to pass their nationality to their children, the law also marks a ground-breaking step towards reducing the gender gap in Iran. Although Iran is not party to the UN Conventions on Statelessness, the Government is taking steps towards the prevention and reduction of statelessness in the country.