Iran has opened its first military training centre set aside specifically for women volunteers, at Azadi Square in Tehran, as the authorities prepare civilians for what they say could be renewed war with the United States and Israel.

The centre was inaugurated on Tuesday, 10 November, on the western side of the square. At the opening ceremony, women volunteers carrying assault rifles rappelled down a wall and rode a zip line, according to Iranian media reports of the event.

The facility is the first in the Iranian capital dedicated exclusively to training female volunteers, although it is the fourth civilian military training centre to be established in Tehran overall.

What the training involves

The courses on offer include sniper rifle shooting and handling Kalashnikov rifles, the DShK heavy machine gun, handguns and shoulder-fired weapons, according to the West Asia News Agency. Volunteers are also taught rappelling and ziplining, alongside urban defence, air defence, search and rescue and firefighting.

A light weapons instructor told the agency that the training was meant to prepare women for possible wartime conditions involving the United States and Israel. Sudabeh Akbari, who heads the women's Basij organisation in the Revolutionary Guards' Greater Tehran corps, was present at the opening.

Military service is compulsory for men in Iran but not for women, who have mostly served in support roles. The new centre marks a departure from that pattern, bringing women into organised weapons training under the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij Resistance Force.

The Janfada campaign

The centre forms part of the Janfada campaign, a Persian term for people ready to sacrifice their lives for Iran, which began registering volunteers in March. Volunteers are organised into small units and battalions for training in urban defence, weapons handling, air defence, search and rescue and firefighting.

Brigadier General Alireza Salarkia, a deputy coordinator of the Mohammad Rasulullah Corps of Greater Tehran, said 33 million people had signed up to the campaign and that nearly half were women, according to the West Asia News Agency. That participation figure has not been independently verified.

Officials say the wider initiative aims to train one million volunteers, and three similar centres for men and women had already been opened in the capital before the women's centre.

Why Tehran is mobilising civilians

The opening came as Washington and Tehran traded warnings over the war between Iran and the United States and Israel, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February. Iranian officials have spoken openly of preparing the population for renewed attacks, while insisting that no negotiations with the United States are under way.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that economic pressure on Iran meant there was no need for major new combat operations. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, has said there are no talks taking place with Washington and has ruled out the removal of the country's enriched uranium stockpile.

For Tehran, the women's centre is presented as civil defence rather than a step towards conscription. But its opening, with rifles, rappelling and heavy weapons on public display in one of the capital's most prominent squares, underlines how far the authorities are going to put the population on a war footing while diplomacy remains stalled.