World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Iran

Last updated: July 2014

Environment

Iran is surrounded by seven countries: Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Armenia to the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, the Gulf to the south (with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates across the Gulf), and Iraq and Turkey to the west. This geographical location has a significant bearing on the country's minorities.

History

Ever since the foundation of the Iranian State (formerly known as 'Persia' until 1935) by the Achaemenids in the sixth century BC, Iran has experienced alternating phases of political coherence and regional disintegration. The state has included indigenous groups and absorbed periodic waves of tribal invasions.

Historical accounts of Africans entering southern Iran can be traced back to the 17th century. East Africans were enslaved and sent to Khuzestan, Baluchistan and Kerman provinces in southwestern Iran, working in sugarcane or date plantations or as sailors, while others worked as nurses or personal tutors in affluent households.

Ethnic differences in Iran only began to acquire political importance during this century when the state had the means to enforce centralization. Reza Khan (from 1925 Reza Shah Pahlavi), who seized power in 1920, sought to forge the disparate peoples of Iran into a single nation. The state adopted Persian, spoken by 45 per cent of the population, as the official language and used it for all administrative and educational purposes, banning publication in other languages. It also imposed western dress on the population and attempted to settle nomadic pastoralists, by force where needed. These measures created a sharp sense of difference among those peoples which did not belong to the dominant Persian community.

Under his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, this sense of difference increased further. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's rush to industrialize and modernize was concentrated on the central and northern areas of Iran, particularly through the White Revolution of 1963, which was heavily influenced by the French system of governance. These were not the first attempts of the state to achieve modernization and Westernization, however. As early as the mid-nineteenth century, European influences were already manifested in government architectural and structural schemes. At the bequest of the Qajar prince of Persia, Abbas Mirza, Persian students were sent to European universities to study and return with knowledge they had acquired, which became evident with the establishment of the first Ministry of Education in 1855, which was modeled after the French system.

It was during this time as the transition towards modernization and nationalism peaked that the emancipation movement of enslaved Africans also surfaced. By 1928, the parliament had implemented a law to abolish slavery throughout the state.

By 1976 the average level of urbanization in Iran was 46.8 per cent; the level in Kurdish and Baluchi regions, at opposite ends of the country, was less than 25 per cent, however, while that for the Persian-dominated Central Province was over 80 per cent. Other indices, for example literacy or electrification of homes, followed similar proportions. The non-Persian periphery felt it was subsidizing the industrialized core and this economic discrimination fueled community self-awareness on the periphery.

The Pahlavis liked to emphasize the ancient and pre-Islamic nature of the Iranian state. However, Iran had a strong Shi'a tradition going back to the initial schism with the Sunnis. The Safavid dynasty had adopted Shi'a Islam in the sixteenth century, and the Pahlavis underestimated the ability of the Shi'a clergy to mobilize popular disapproval and dissatisfaction, as demonstrated in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In the spring of 1979, following the Shah's overthrow, the Islamic Republic of Iran was proclaimed. All ethnic minorities, except the Azeris, sought autonomy, hoping that Tehran would be unable to maintain its grip on the periphery. The new regime feared that conceding autonomy to one community would lead to the disintegration of the state. Ayatollah Khomeini also argued that ethnic autonomy violated the universalism implicit in Islam.

Peoples

Out of a population of approximately 76 million people, Persians comprise the largest ethnic group in Iran at approximately 61 per cent. Other ethnic minority groups include Azeris (16 per cent), Kurds (10 per cent), Lur (6 per cent), Baluchi and Arabs (both two per cent), Turkmen and other Turkic tribes (two percent), and other nomadic peoples comprising about one per cent of the total population. Other minorities include Armenians and Assyrians, as well as an Afro-Iranian minority. The most commonly used languages in Iran are: Persian (official), Persian dialects, Azeri and other Turkic dialects, Kurdish, Gilaki and Mazandarani, Luri, Baluchi, Arabic, and other non-Turkic languages.

The main religions in Iran are: Islam (98 per cent) - 89 per cent of which practise Shi'a Islam - strongly dominated by the Twelver Ja'fari School (referred to as Ithna'ashari in Arabic), and a minority of followers of Sunni Islam, and other Islamic groups such as Isma'ili Islam and Ahl-i Haq. Other religious groups include Bahá'í, numbering 300-350,000, Zoroastrians (Mazda-yasnie) (30-35,000), Jews (25,000-30,000) and Sabean Mandaeans (5,000-10,000) (UNCIRF).

Most Kurds, Turkmens, Baluch and some Arabs are Sunni, and can be discussed as ethnic communities since they do not form a cohesive coherent whole as Sunnis. Instead the various communities tend to express their identity in ethnic terms. Sunnis represent some 10 per cent of Iran's population.

The Dom ('Gypsies') migrated from the Indian sub-continent as early as the sixth century and speak various dialects of the Domari language. They are among the most marginalized peoples of Iran: not counted in any official statistics, living in isolated - sometimes fenced-off - ghettoes, and often deprived of employment and education because they lack identity cards. Many of the thousands of street children in Tehran are Dom.

Governance

The Islamic Republic of Iran has proven a highly centralized government, strongly opposed to any form of autonomy to the regions as risking the disintegration of the state. The early revolutionary period and the subsequent invasion of Iran by Iraq in 1979/1980 led to some rebellions and attempts to claim autonomy, particularly in the Kurdish areas. However, those claiming secession, as well as the communities they came from, paid a heavy price for this.

Article 5 of the constitution defines Iran as a Shi'a Republic. Article 115 debars non-Shi'as from presidential office. Article 12 of its Constitution declares Twelver Ja'fari Shi'a Islam as its official religion.

The state is currently under international scrutiny regarding discrimination against women running for political office. It was reported that all 30 female candidates running for presidential office in the 14 June 2013 election were disqualified, which led to questions regarding the 'fairness and transparency of the vetting procedures.'

Minorities

The Islamic Republic formally recognized the dhimmi communities in Article 13 of the new Constitution - Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian Iranians who "within the limits of the law, are free to perform their religious rites and ceremonies, and to act according to their own canon in matters of personal affairs and religious education". However, the state was less tolerantly disposed towards Protestant evangelical churches, and has been vehemently hostile to the Bahá'í. In fact, no recognition has been given to the Bahá'í community, despite it constituting the largest non-Muslim religious minority community in Iran.The Un Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief stated that persecution of Bahá'í was 'systematic and covering all areas of state activities, the various systems from family law provisions to schooling, education, security.'

Article 19 of the Iranian Constitution states: "All people of Iran, whatever the ethnic group or tribe to which they belong, enjoy equal rights; colour, race, language and the like, do not bestow any privilege." However, discrimination on the basis of religion and ethnicity is rife in Iran. Minority languages are suppressed and many minorities are disadvantaged politically, socially and economically.

The treatment is not constant across minority groups. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a discerning minority policy which distinguishes between the history of the demands of that minority, whether it constitutes an ethnic or religious minority, their relationship with outside actors, and whether and in what area a threat is perceived from that group. These factors determine the disadvantage and repression they may suffer. Hence, Azeris suffer linguistic and cultural discrimination in order to stem Azeri nationalism, the tolerance of Kurdish expression ebbs and flows in some areas depending on the latest encounter between Kurdish political activists and government forces, but intolerance of evangelical Christians and the persecution of Bahá'í on religious grounds has remained largely intact throughout the changes of the past 28 years. Nevertheless there have been some developments - the position of Ismailis in Iran has improved, whereas official harassment of Sufis has increased since President Ahmadinejad took office in August 2005.

Minorities

• Arabs
• Azeris
• Bahá'ís
• Christians
• Kurds

Resources

Minority based and advocacy organisations

Assyrian Cultural and Advice Centre
Tel: 44 20 8579 0192

Jubilee Campaign
Tel: 44 1483 230 250
Email: info@jubileecampaign.co.uk

Bahá'í Community of the UK
Tel: 44 20 7584 2566
Email: opi@bahai.org.uk
Website: www.bahai.org.uk

Bahá'í International Community
Tel: 41 22 798 54 00
Email: bic@geneva.bic.org
Website: http://www.bahai.org/persecution/iran

Centre for Armenian Information and Advice
Tel: 44 20 8992 4621
Email: info@caia.org.uk
Website: www.caia.org.uk

Institute of Ismaili Studies
Tel: 44 20 7881 6000
Email: info@iis.ac.uk
Website: http://www.iis.ac.uk

Kurdish Human Rights Project
Tel: 44 20 7405 3835
Email: khrp@khrp.org
Website: http://www.khrp.org

Sources and further reading

Afshari, R., Human Rights, The Abuse of Cultural Relativism, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.

Amnesty International, Iran: Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, London, Amnesty International Publications, 2012.

British Ahwazi Friendship Society, P. O. Box 2397, London, W8 4ZS, UK, tel. 44 795 855 3215, Email info@ahwaz.org.uk Website http://www.ahwaz.org.uk

Bahá'í International Community - United Nations Office, Five Years Too Many. New York, 2013.

The Bahá'ís, The International Web Site of the Bahá'í Faith, www.bahai.org

The Bahá'í Question, Cultural Cleansing in Iran, http://question.bahai.org/

Buck, C., Islam and Minorities: The Case of the Bahá'ís, Studies in Contemporary Islam, vol. 5, nos. 1 and 2, Spring and Fall 2003

Cooper, R., The Baha'is of Iran, London, MRG report, no. 51, 1982 and revised and updated edition, 1985.

Cooper, R., The Baha'is of Iran, London, MRG report, 1991.

Daftary, F., The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines, Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Furman, U., Minorities in Contemporary Islamist Discourse, Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 36, no. 4, October 2000.

Human Rights Watch, Iran, Religious and Ethnic Minorities: Discrimination in Law and Practice, September 1997 report, section: Ethnic Minorities, Arabs, http://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/iran/

Ghanea, N., Human Rights, the UN and the Bahá'ís in Iran, Leiden, Brill Publishers, 2003.

McDowall, D., The Kurds, London, MRG report, 1991, 1996.

McDowall, D., A Modern History of the Kurds, London, I. B. Tauris, 1995.

Samii, A. W., The Nation and Its Minorities: Ethnicity, Unity and State Policy in Iran, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol. XX, nos. 1 & 2.

Sanasarian, E., Religious Minorities in Iran, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World, 2011.

Shaffer, B., Borders and Brethren, Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2002.

UN General Assembly, The situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Note by the Secretary-General, 23 September 2011, A/66/374.

Vali, A., The Kurds and Their 'Others': Fragmented Identity and Fragmented Politics, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol. XVIII, no. 2, 1998.