Attitudes toward Kurdish in the City of Ilam in Iran

Rezaei, Saeed; Bahrami, Ali

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-19605-9_4

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Regarding parents' language ideologies, all families held strongly positive views on the transmission and maintenance of their HL to preserve their culture and identity as native speakers of Kurdish, a finding compatible with studies of other minority speakers in Iran (e.g. Mirvahedi and Jafari 2018;Rezaei and Bahrami 2019). It also revealed that respondents' underlying beliefs about their HL solely represent "the symbolic function of the heritage language as a link to the ethnic identity" (Gkaintartzi et al 2016: 6).…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Among these languages, Kurdish has been less explored from a sociolinguistic perspective. Exceptions include the studies on Kurdish spoken in western Iran by Sheyholislami (2012) and Rezaei and Bahrami (2019) and the special issue of the International Journal of Sociology of Language (2012) which focused on Kurdish in Iran and other neighboring countries (Turkey, Iraq, and Syria). And among all these studies, no systematic rigorous research has been done on the FLP of Kurdish-Persian speaking families in the city of Kermanshah.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Family language policy among Kurdish–Persian speaking families in Kermanshah, Iran

2022

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Minority language studies have received increasing attention over the last decade in Iran. Drawing on Spolsky’s (Spolsky, Bernard. 2004. Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) language policy theoretical framework, this inquiry reports on the language ideologies, practices, and management efforts of an under-explored group of Kurdish families residing in the city of Kermanshah. To this end, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic fieldwork guided the collection of data from 40 Kurdish–Persian bilingual parents. The thematic analysis of data revealed glaring inconsistencies among the three elements of family language policy (FLP). That is parents’ strong attachment to Kurdish did not necessarily translate into their language practices and efforts. The results also suggest that the studied parents adopted a subtractive approach to their children’s proficiency in Kurdish. We argue that parents are not the core force in heritage language maintenance and there are other external factors determining the transmission of the home language.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family language policy among Kurdish–Persian speaking families in Kermanshah, Iran

2022

Self Cite

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Towards conceptualizing ‘demographic agency’ in Family Language Policy

Mirvahedi,

Nawasser

2024

Sociolinguistic Studies

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This article investigates the success story of language maintenance in Arab families in Iran. Taking Fishman’s (1991) emphasis on micro face-to-face interactions in language maintenance processes as our point of departure, it argues that language maintenance requires that families live in a sociolinguistic milieu in which face-to-face interactions are facilitated by demographic patterns of settlement. Despite unfavorable institutional policies towards minority languages in Iran, the specific geographical makeup of the country has historically pushed speakers of minority languages to settle in certain regions (Katouzian, 2009). Drawing on Sealey and Carter’s (2004) concept of ‘demographic agency’, this article argues that such a demographic settlement of Arabs in southern cities and towns in Iran has given them a collective power to maintain their language, which takes the form of laissez-faire interactions in Arabic at home. The findings, based on interviews with families and recordings of interactions at home, suggest that, although parents express concern regarding their children’s academic achievement and socioeconomic mobility, which requires higher proficiency in Persian, this concern does not readily translate into language practices in Persian at home.

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Kurds and Kurdish Nationalism in Iran

BOZBUGA¹

2021

İran Çalışmaları Dergisi

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Kurdish nationalism in Iran is quite weak currently compared to the bright days in the last century, largely due to strength of the Iran, as well as Iran's relations with regional Kurdish organizations. Iran, through its relations with the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the PKK, prevents these organizations from supporting the Iranian Kurds or manipulates these organizations against its own Kurds. Linguistic and sectarian diversity and the population structure of the Iranian Kurds foster the weakness of Kurdish nationalism. While overlapping Sunnism and Kurdishness strengthens Kurdish identity in Iran, Shiism weaken Kurdish identity among Shiite Kurds and prevents them from participating Kurdish movement. Indeed, the support of Sunni Kurds for Kurdish nationalistic organizations is far stronger than Shiite Kurds. Shiite Kurds, who have a high level of integration into the Iranian system, stay away from Kurdish parties and participation in Kurdish organizations remains marginal among Shiite Kurds. This phenomenon makes Kurdish organizations largely Sunni organizations. In addition, low population growth rate of the Iranian Kurds is another weakness of the Kurdish movement. Most of Kurdish majority areas suffers from low fertility rate which is even below the replacement rate. Low natural population growth rate in Iranian Kurds will weaken the Kurdish movement in Iran in the long term. On the other hand, the natural population growth rate is still high in some regions in which armed militant groups recruit young Kurds in high number.

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Attitudes toward Kurdish in the City of Ilam in Iran

Cited by 3 publications

References 20 publications

Family language policy among Kurdish–Persian speaking families in Kermanshah, Iran

Family language policy among Kurdish–Persian speaking families in Kermanshah, Iran

Towards conceptualizing ‘demographic agency’ in Family Language Policy

Kurds and Kurdish Nationalism in Iran

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