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This article focuses on ethnic minorities in Iran and their related political issues and current realities.

Overview

Iran/Persia is an ethnically diverse state, with "Persians" forming the majority of the population. Historically, however, the very notion of "Iran" and "Persians" has meant a confederation of all groups either native to the Iranian Plateau, or which speak an Iranian language, whether located in Iran or not (e.g., Afghans, Tajiks, Ossetians, etc.). Therefore, historically, the use of the term "Persian" has included all the various regional dialects and subgroups of Iran, which almost all Persians identify with in some way. While almost all Iranians/Persians identify with a secondary ethnic, religious, linguistic, or regional background in some way, the primary identity unifying virtually all of these sub-groups is their distinctly Iranian language, and/or culture.

The main ethno-linguistic minority groups in Iran include the Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis, Turkmen, Armenians, Assyrians, and Georgians. The tribal groups include the Bakhtiaris, Khamseh, Lurs, Qashqai, as well as others. Though many of the tribal groups have become urbanized over the decades, some continue to function as rural tribal societies. According to the CIA World Factbook and other Western sources, ethnicity/race in Iran breaks down as follows: Persian 51%, Azari 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%. However, these statistics are largely discredited and viewed as flawed by Iranians themselves, because the Western data ignores considerable intermarriage rates over centuries between these groups, and the fact that almost all of these groups speak Persian as their first language, and identify with their sub-identity only secondarily.

Moreover, there is debate as to what the definition of a Persian is. According to Western sources, such as the CIA World Factbook, anyone in Iran who associates with a regional linguistic sub-identity is deemed an "ethnic minority", even though the individual speaks Persian as their first language, and is ethnically indistinguishable from the rest of Iranians, including Persians. Conversely, Western sources erroneously define the "Persian" "ethnicity" as basically anyone living in Iran who does not claim a secondary regional linguistic identity.

While, many of these ethnic groups have their own languages, cultures, and often literature, their languages and cultures are essentially regional variations of Persian and are all native to Iran, similar to the relationship between Welsh, Scottish, and English cultures, which are all similar and are native to Britain. Despite their overwhelming similarities, in modern times, their differences occasionally emerge as political ambitions, largely as a result of provocation from outside powers. Some of these groups are also religious minorities. For instance, the majority of Kurds and Baluchis are Sunni Muslims, while the state religion in Iran is Shi'a Islam. The overwhelming majority of Persians and Azaris are Shi'a.

One of the major internal policy challenges during the centuries up until now for most or all Iranian governments has been to find the appropriate and balanced approach to the difficulties and opportunities caused by this diversity, particularly as this internal diversity has often been readily utilized by foreign powers.

Current policy

While the Iranian constitution clearly states that linguistic and cultural minorities have equal rights, some ethnic minorities, such as Jews, Arabs, Balochis and Kurds, complain of racial or religious discrimination . The government has also held down (occasionally violently) political groups that mobilise around ethnicity.

Many Iranian provinces have radio and television stations in local language or dialect. School education is in Persian, the Iranian official language, but use of regional languages is allowed under the constitution of the Islamic Republic, and Azari language and culture is studied at academic university levels in institutions of higher education. Article 15 of Iran's constitution stipulates:

"The Official Language and script of Iran, the lingua franca of its people, is Persian. Official documents, correspondence, and texts, as well as text-books, must be in this language and script. However, the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian."

Article 19 of the constitution adds:

"All people of Iran, whatever the ethnic group or tribe to which they belong, enjoy equal rights; color, race, language, and the like, do not bestow any privilege."

However, human rights groups have accused the Iranian government of violating constitutional guarantees of equality. In a report entitled Iran: New government fails to address dire human rights situation, published in February 2006, Amnesty International says:

Despite constitutional guarantees of equality, individuals belonging to minorities in Iran, who are believed to number about half of the population of about 70 millions, are subject to an array of discriminatory laws and practices. These include land and property confiscations, denial of state and para-statal employment under the gozinesh criteria and restrictions on social, cultural, linguistic and religious freedoms which often result in other human rights violations such as the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience, grossly unfair trials of political prisoners before Revolutionary Courts, corporal punishment and use of the death penalty, as well as restrictions on movement and denial of other civil rights.

Many members of ethnic minorities have made a successful political career. Most provincial governors and many members of the local ruling classes and clergy are members of the relevant ethnic groups. Many, if not most, members of the national cultural and political elite have mixed roots.

Separatist tendencies, led by some groups such as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran and Komalah in Iranian Kurdistan, for example, had led to frequent unrest and occasional military crackdown throughout the 1990s and even to the present . In Iran, Kurds have twice had their own autonomous regions independent of central government control: The Republic of Mahabad in Iran which was the second independent Kurdish state of the 20th century, after the Republic of Ararat in modern Turkey; and the second time after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

Similar tendencies have been observed in other provinces such as Balochistan, Khuzestan (see Politics of Khuzestan) and Iranian Azerbaijan. The government claims that these tendencies have been instigated by foreign powers. For example, in a cable sent on July 6th 1945 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the local Soviet commander in Russian (northern) held Azerbaijan was instructed as such:

"Begin preparatory work to form a national autonomous Azerbaijan district with broad powers within the Iranian state and simultaneously develop separatist movements in the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, Gorgan, and Khorasan".

Historical notes

Iran (formerly Persia) traditionally was governed over the last few centuries in a fairly decentralised way with much regional and local autonomy. In particular, weaker members of the Qajar dynasty often did not rule much beyond the capital Tehran, a fact exploited by the imperial powers Britain and Russia in the 19th century. For example, when British cartographers, diplomats, and telegraph workers, traveled along Iran's southern coast in the early 19th century laden with guns and accompanied by powerful ships, some local chieftains quickly calculated that their sworn allegiance to the Shah in Tehran with its accompanying tax burden might be optional. When queried, they proclaimed their own local authority.

Reza Shah Pahlavi, and to a lesser degree his son Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, successfully strengthened the central government by using reforms, bribes and suppressions. In particular, the Bakhtiaris, Kurds, and Lurs until the late 1940s required persistent military measures to keep them under governmental control.

In studying the history of ethnicity in Iran, it is important to remember that "ethnic nationalism is largely a nineteenth century phenomenon, even if it is fashionable to retroactively extend it."

References

1. Decree of the CC CPSU Politburo to Mir Bagirov, CC Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, on "measures to Organize a Separatist Movement in Southern Azerbaijan and Other Provinces of Northern Iran". Translation provided by The Cold War International History Project at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
2. "Memorandum by the Rev. George Percy Badger on the Pretensions of Persia in Beloochistan and Mekran, drawn up with special reference to Her Claim to Gwadur and Charbar," London, Dec. 23, 1863, FOP 60/287.
3. Patrick Clawson. Eternal Iran. Palgrave Macmillan. 2005 ISBN 1-4039-6276-6 p.23

See also

• Religious minorities in Iran
• Iranian Kurdistan
• Iranian Kuwaitis
• Anti-Persianism by Arabs
• Armenian-Iranians
• Georgians in Iran
• Demographics of Iran
• Azarbaijan (Iran)
• Human rights in Iran

External links

• Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran Opposition group comprising ethnic minority parties
• Ethnic minorities singled out for attack in Iran
• Status of the Kurds in Iran and West Azerbaijan province of Iran
• Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
• Human Rights First
• website of the Komalah, a Marxist guerilla movement, mostly Kurdish, active in Western Iran
• Website about KDPI
• On Ahvaz/Khuzestan separatist tendencies

• Ethnic groups in Iran