The securitisation of life: Eastern Kurdistan under the rule of a Perso-Shi'i state

Life and labor on the internal colonial edge: Political economy of kolberi in Rojhelat

“…Also, the authors of the current paper have published three papers on the colonial conditions in Kurdistan. Therefore, here we shall avoid repeating what has already been discussed elsewhere (see, Mohammadpour & Soleimani, 2019; Soleimani & Mohammadpour, 2019a, 2019b).…”

“…Also, the state's securitization of their habitus, subjects Kurdish students to an intense regime of surveillance. Within the education department, there exist several specific security organizations, each of which is tasked with profiling Kurdish students and teachers for their possible political and religious dissent, their behaviors, writings, speaking, their habits of dressing, networking, and social media activities and so forth (Soleimani & Mohammadpour, 2019b). Student profiling starts from the middle school, a process through which the state apparatuses determine whether or not a given student be allowed to pursue higher education or be employed in the “public sector.” The backgrounds of the close and far relatives of the students are also all determinative factors in their approval by the state (Soleimani & Mohammadpour, 2019b).…”

Kurdish insurgency in Rojhelat: from Rasan to the Oslo negotiations

“…The September 2017 general strike in Baneh, a city in Iran's Kurdistan Province, which began as a protest against Iranian security forces' killing of Kurdish kolbers (cross-border goods porters), lasted over three weeks and enjoyed widespread public participation. 12 In response, the Iranian government deepened its systematic militarisation of Rojhelat, with unprecedented measures taken by the IRGC and other Iranian security forces. 13 Targeting bases of Rojhelat's political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan with ballistic missiles or missile strikes from drones have become regular practices, along with the stationing of large numbers of Shiite militiamen of the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaʿbi (Popular Mobilisation Forces) around Kurdish cities, including Saghez, Bokan and Shno/Ushnoya.…”

Colonial Management of Iranian Kurdistan; with Emphasis on Water Resources

“…The Kurdish region in Iran is among the most securitized, economically-deprived and underdeveloped regions of the country. This is in spite of the fact of this region being in possession of a large variety of mineral/underground resources, dense forests and massive surface and underground water resources (Soleimani and Mohammadpour 2019;Farangis 2020;Hassaniyan 2020Hassaniyan , 2021. An example of this contradiction is that despite possessing massive water resources, drought and water scarcity are serious challenges facing the region's population.…”

“…In addition to problems such as drought and economic disadvantage and de-development, 1 the irregular and unconsidered extraction of minerals such as gold and aluminium has resulted in various environmental and health issues among the Kurdish people (Farangis 2020). Resultingly, many Kurds criticise the Iranian state's economic and development policies in Kurdistan for being unsustainable, discriminatory and colonialist (Soleimani and Mohammadpour 2019;Hassaniyan 2021). Scholars of Kurdish studies refer to the Kurdish region as an internal colony of the Iranian state, where the Kurdish people and their natural resources are subject to state exploitation and destruction (Beşikçi 2004;Soleimani and Mohammadpour 2019;Erdelan 2019;Sohrabi 2019a;Hassaniyan 2019Hassaniyan , 2020Hassaniyan , 2021.…”