1. Introduction

                 The right to educational justice itself involves two controversial theoretical traditions that have moved in two separate and even conflicting directions in terms of historical genealogy which are the tradition of "right" and tradition of "justice". The theorists in favor of the tradition of right often consider it separately from the theory of social justice due to the defense of freedom - as a value - as well as the acceptance of the principle of human dignity. They believe that the realization of social justice provides the ground for the intervention of public institutions - including the State - which, in addition to creating platforms for rent and corruption, also limits the scope of individual rights and freedoms (West, 2003; Ayers, Quinn & Stovall, 2008). On the other hand, the supporters of the tradition of justice believe that the focus on individual freedom in practice has turned humans into profit-seeking creatures who only seek to increase profits and reduce their own pain and suffering. They also ignore issues that can threaten humanity (Robeyns, 2017). Therefore, the thinkers of this tradition believe that there should always be public institutions that limit the self-destructive nature of unbridled and speculative individual freedoms for the sake of justice.

            Despite this theoretical tradition that can be expressed in relation to the relationship between "right" and "justice" historically, it can be said that education is considered a human right and a necessary tool for the realization of other fundamental human rights (UNESCO & UNICEF, 2007). In such a way that people who are economically and socially marginalized can be empowered and reach an acceptable level of social dignity through having the right to education. The right to education can become a tool against widespread gender, ethnic, linguistic, religious and economic discrimination by empowering women, ethnic, linguistic, religious minorities, and deprived classes of society (UNESCO, 2023). Based on the importance and position that the right to educational justice - as a fundamental human right - has acquired in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of Child have been explicitly emphasized. In the light of this theoretical introduction, it can be said that the right to educational justice is the possibility or privilege by which people can enjoy the desired and appropriate education equally without discrimination (Gorji Azandriani, 2016).

             On the one hand, choosing the desired education confirms the dominance that the actors in this field have - teachers, parents and learners-, and on the other hand, it confirms their freedom in drawing their own educational future. Of course, in the issue of the right to educational justice, it should be added that the compulsion of education is not compatible with its right, although developmental goals and need to create national cohesion can justify this compulsion (Tomaševski, 2001). Educational justice and equality is one of the important pillars and elements of the right to education, which together with other elements - such as educational freedom, independence and plurality - form the pillars of the right to education. Despite the fact that at first glance it seems that human rights are obvious rights for everyone, but the different interpretations of legal systems have prevented the full implementation of these rights in terms of diversity in gender, race, language, religion and ethnicity.

           In Iran, the victory of the Islamic Revolution in the late 1970s caused the change of the royal political system to the Islamic Republic - along with the ideological dominance of Shia Imami jurisprudence. This change had a major impact on the legal system in particular and changed all the rules and regulations of life accordingly. After the establishment and relative stability of the Islamic Republic of Iran - and especially during these last two decades - Iranian jurists realized that in some areas there is a difference of opinion between the principles of Shia jurisprudence and international law documents accepted by the majority of world governments. For example, Mazhari, Mousavi & Rawai (2022) believe that there is conformity and harmony between Iran’s laws and international documents in most cases, except in the fields where Islam has its own laws. Derikvand (2022) received the Constitution of the Islamic Republic - inspired by the Islam and aligned with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international covenants - recognized the right to education as a social-citizenship right for the Iranian nation. Sadeghi Ram, Movazni & Pourrashid (2021) believed that although the universality and freedom of education is supported in the Iran constitution, this support is not comprehensive and efficient and in many cases it is in conflict with the international documents. Davoudi & Abuzari (2021) by examining the educational policies and citizenship rights of children in Iran have come to the conclusion that the neoliberal response to the shortcomings of general education is completely in conflict with the philosophy of the political system and has caused discrimination in access to appropriate educational quality. Yadalahi, Zarei & Yavari (2018a) with a comparative analysis of the approach of the UNESCO2030 document and the document of the “Fundamental Reform Document of Education of Iran” on the topic of "gender educational justice" found that the UNESCO2030 document believes in equality and the Iranian document believes in justice in education. Also, the authors found that Iran's legal system - influenced by the principles of Shia jurisprudence - does not recognize educational justice for all religious minorities equally (Yadalahi, Zarei and Yavari, 2018b). According to Rahai & Zaraq Marandi (2016), the purpose of the right to mother tongue is to create conditions for linguistic minorities to use their mother language instead of using the language of the majority, while in Iran this actually do not happens to many bilingual children in schools. Asadinejad, Rostami Chalkadi & Moradi (2014) by comparing the right to education of children in Iran’s laws and human rights documents found that punishment of children by parents is implicitly accepted in Iranian system. Pourabdullah; Hosseini & Sayar (2012) also confirm that in Iran’s laws, in cases of possible conflict between the right of parents to raise a child and the right of a child to freedom of opinion and expression, priority should be given to the latter.

2. Research Method

        The present research method is comparative using qualitative content analysis. This approach allows researchers to interpret the authenticity and truth of data subjectively but with a scientific method (Berge, 2001). Also, in terms of approach, the current research is a Summative Content Analysis type. In this type of analysis, the focus is on discovering the basic meanings of the word and its themes (Iman and Noshadi, 2010). The method of collecting data was documentary finding primary and secondary sources using the Boolean method and by searching keywords such as Imami jurisprudence, Shia jurisprudence, international documents, the right to education, human rights, and Islamic law in Iranian and international information databases. The method of analyzing the data and also presenting the results, the four-stage comparative method of Bereday includes description, interpretation, juxtaposition and comparison.

3. Findings

1. A) Description

1. International documents

         The right to education is a social right and a guarantor of the spiritual life of a human being, which in addition to providing the privilege of reading and writing, provides the basis for awareness, empowerment and enjoyment of other human rights - such as freedom, employment, security, and peace. The most basic source for the recognition of the right to education is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights. In addition, the documents approved by UNESCO are among the international sources of the right to education. In any case, based on the analysis of the content of international documents, the right to education has principles that are an integral part of it. These principles include universality, non-discrimination, freedom of education, compulsory education at the primary level, and gradualism & quality of education (Morgan, 2012).

             The right to education is mentioned in many human rights documents, such as articles 26 and 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the fourth paragraph of article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, articles 13 and 14 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, articles 29 and 28 of Convention on the Rights of the Child approved in 1989, Article 2 of the First Additional Protocol to the European Convention on the Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Articles 12 and 11 of the Declaration of Human Rights in Islam and the Convention against Discrimination in Education. From the<