Ethnic Minorities and the Politics of Identity in Iran

Abstract

The present review essay is of a novel format: two authors working in the same field introduce each other's works, and then pose a number of questions to each other. The aim is to facilitate dialogue between scholars occupied with similar issues, theories, methods or problems, and to share their discussions with others. Here, Alam Saleh,

We are both women and Kurd: An intersectional analysis of female Kolbars challenges in Iranian Kurdistan amid the COVID crisis

“…In Iranian Kurdistan, where Kurds are predominantly Sunni Muslims, the intersection of ethnicity and Sunni Islam has exacerbated and deepened alienation from the central government and left them politically marginalized, specifically during the Islamic Republic, which made Shiite Islam the official religion of the country (Bengio, 2017). In other words, after the Islamic revolution, Iranian identity came to be based around the superiority of a Persian/Shiite identity, in which “Shiism was presented as a Persianised version of Islam; however, Kurds have tended to reveal no such inclinations (Akbarzadeh et al., 2019; Elling & Saleh, 2016). ” Hence, the confluence of Sunni Islam with Kurdish identity has caused Kurds to be viewed as a serious threat to the Islamic Republic regime, deprived of opportunities and excluded from high political office (ibid.).…”

“…However, the fledgling Islamist regime implemented a similarly harsh plan to suppress the aspirations of Iranian Kurds, prompting a mass armed uprising that was eventually crushed (Yasin, 2007). The Islamic regime 3 provided no space for any ethnic political activity and the Islamic revolution came to be founded on the superiority of a Persian/Shiite identity (Elling & Saleh, 2016). Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Kurdish demand have generally consisted of appeals for decentralization and democratization, without serious development of separatist inclinations (Akbarzadeh et al., 2019; Entessar, 2014).…”