The Islamic Republic of Iran is obliged to respect the right to education under international human rights law and has made legal commitments to conform to the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Drawing on the framework developed by former Special Rapporteur of the UN High Commission for Human Rights on Education, Katarina Tomaševski, that education must be available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable, this article discusses Iran's response to its obligation to make education available and accessible. It illustrates how the state is falling short in its duty to make education available and accessible to all children under its jurisdiction, reinforcing the gender inequities experienced by girls and practising religious discrimination in educational access.