Saturday, April 5, 2014

Kurdistan

A Young Kurdish-Iranian
Photo: Mitra Rad/Facebook

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think your referall is incorrect. She is an Iranian Kurd not Kurdish-Iranian. Iran has many minorities including Kurds, Jews and Arabs. The problem surfaces when these people consider themselves different from others. WE just had a discussion about Baluchies. Thanks

Nader Uskowi said...

Yes it's obvious! And it shows that your mindset toward Iran's minorities is fixed, no matter if the reference is to Baluchis or the Kurds, and I suspect same would be true about Turks, Arabs, Turkmen, Bakhtiari, Qashqaie, and all different ethnicities/minorities/nationalities that make up the reality of Iran throughout ages.

The multi-ethnicity of Iranian population is the source of its strength, not its weakness. Whether you refer to the country's Kurds as Iranian Kurds, or Kurdish-Iranians does not matter. The Idea is to accept the beauty in multi-ethnicity reality of the country, not hiding it and running away from it, a country of different heritages, languages, cultures, and religions; mirroring the 21st century realities of all advanced societies.

The institutional discrimination against the minorities by a short-sighted central government, especially with regards to religion and language, is indeed troubling, and so is the imbalance in development projects in minority-dominated regions.

B.M.A said...

USKOWI -

No offense but YOU will have to present a deep analysis for the benefit of your readers[complete with facts and figures] on your allegations in regard to what you are saying in the last paragraph !!

[ "The institutional discrimination against the minorities by a short-sighted central government, especially with regards to religion and language, is indeed troubling, and so is the imbalance in development projects in minority-dominated regions."] !!.

Anonymous said...

You stated and I quote"

"... and all different ethnicities/minorities/nationalities that make up the reality of Iran.."

Well to start with there is no such things as different *nationalities* in Iran. There is only one Nationality or to be precise "the Nationality" and that is Iranian. Anyone considers himself/herself outside of this cannot call himeslf Iranian.

Nader Uskowi said...

B.M.A, Iranian minorities was not the subject of this post, I only posted a photo of a young Kurdish-Iranian with beautiful Kurdistan in the background. I made the comments in response to an objection raised by another commentator for the use of the term Kurdish-Iranian. So it was not meant to be a thorough analysis of the problem, But it appears that we need to post on the subject and often, which we'll do; hopefully you would learn about the plight of Iranian minorities, and the policies of the Islamic Republic regarding the issue.

Anon 3:00 PM, your own declaration of who is Iranian and who is "outside" of being an Iranian, based on the use of a single word, is a proof of my earlier observation of your troubling beliefs of what the meaning of Iran is. Again Iran is a beautiful tapestry of different ethnicity/minorities/nationalities that makes up the reality of Iran, which has shaped its history through ages.

B.M.A said...

Thanks Uskowi -for your response waiting for a well researched post on the subject -From there we would point to you the Government comprehensive strategic economic plans for those regions step by step - and the fruits over the years!-. @_We would then show you how developed Nations like Australia ,Brazil,Russia, and INDIA to name a few- have performed on the general issue of rights of minorities -i believe that from here you will learn that the IRI have fared better compared to these Nations and that your hard hitting criticism on the government on the issue is a product of your low appreciations and appetite to see the efforts of the Government on the issue.

Anonymous said...

The regime is planning the breakup of Iran through their disrespect of minorities and forced view of Shia Islam.The smallest minority are the bankrupt mullahs who control the wealth of the country.They need to be put back in their place and never allowed to play in politics ever again.

Anonymous said...

Racism in Iranian society is long standing an rampant across the political spectrum both inside and outside Iran. While the current government definately discriminates against ethnic minorities. The previous regime commited a lot of violence against minorities such as the Balochi and Gashqai in the 1960s and even induced ultra Nationalism with a program of Persianization of society aimed to homogenize our so called pure Aryan race. How often do Iranians try to prove to that we are white or European as if that gives us some sort of air of superiority
Just look at all of our jokes. How often growing up have I heard Turkish and Rashti jokes implying stupidity.
How often when people dont like the current regime do they call them "Arabs" or the term Tazee (newcomer).

Anonymous said...

Please refrain from chai khaneh nonsense, Iran is the most stable country in the region and no one is going to "break" Iran. It is this sort of delusional thinking that has kept a large proportion of the diaspora population in fantasy land.

Anonymous said...

I agree with B.M.A that there is lacking evidence "Institutional discrimination" on Irans ethnic Minorities and since this thread was about a cute Kurdish girl that went off topic lets use them as an example.

Dr. Richard Frye who recently passed away writes: "the mosaic of peoples living in Iran today reflects the central geographical situation of the country throughout history, frequently described as a crossroads of Eurasia. Although many languages and dialects are spoken in the country, and different forms of social life, the dominant influence of the Persian language and culture has created a solidarity complex of great strength. This was revealed in the Iran-Iraq War when Arabs of Khuzestan did not join the invaders, and earlier when Azeris did not rally to their northern cousins after World War II, when Soviet forces occupied Azerbaijan. Likewise the Baluch, Turkmen, Armenians and Kurds, although with bonds to their kinsmen on the other side of borders, are conscious of the power and richness of Persian culture and willing to participate in it."

Tehran's popular Mayor M.B. Ghalibaf is Kurdish and was the runner up to the Presidential elections.

The University of Sanandaj offers courses in Kurdish and papers are published in Kurdish language, as well as radio stations and newspapers in Kurdish.
local language newspaper / radio was not allowed before the revolution, nor were loacal language courses allowed at Universities. Anthropologist Lois Beck from the university of Chcago in her book on Iranian minorities writes"Tribal populations, as well as all ethnic minorities in Iran, were denied many national rights under the Pahlavis and were victims of Persian chauvinism. National education, in which all students were required to read and write in Persian and in which Persian culture and civilization were stressed to the almost complete neglect of the contributions of other population segments, was culturally destructive."

Even Iraqi president Jalal Talabani expressed that Kurds are treated well in Iran and stated in an interview to a Jordanian newspaper once and he stated "Iran never tried to obliterate the Kurd's identity. There is a province in Iran called Kordestan province. The Iranians name their planes after the province in Iran [including Kordestan]" - Interview in the Jordanian newspaper al-Ahram al-Yawm (amman), December 1, 1998

In Irans 6th parliamentary elections 18 Kurds won seats.

Separatist groups such as the PDKI are fringe elements who want succession from Iran, not less discrimination.

Anonymous said...

@ 9:56

Sure, you have Kordestan... just as you have Arabestan, Baluchestan and Torkmanestan.

Anonymous said...

@2:23 the US appears to be the only ones fomenting Ethnic strife in Iran
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/27/rohrabachers-plan-to-partition-iran/

Anonymous said...

Seymor Hersh revealed back in 2008 that the US Gov under Bush funded 400 million for separatist groups to in their words to "destabilize" the Iranian government.

Furthermore in the mainstream Political science journal "Foreign Policy" reported the Isrealis were doing this too
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/13/false_flag

ABC news
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2007/04/abc_news_exclus/

as well as the New Yorker both stated it wasnt just the Israelis but the US gov was doing this
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh

On 2 April 2007, Abdolmalek Rigi appeared on the Persian service of Voice of America, the official broadcasting service of the United States government, which identified Rigi as "the leader of popular Iranian resistance movement" and used the title of "Doctor" with his name.