Racism in Iran

Last updated

Racism in Iran encompasses various manifestations of racism between the inhabitants of the country. A UN panel in 2019 said "Arabs, Kurds, and other minorities in Iran face discrimination because of their ethnicity." [1] In 2010, The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) of the UN urged Iran to tackle racism on Arab, Azeri, Balochi, and Kurdish communities and some communities of non-citizens. [2]

Contents

Arabs

Epithets such as Mush-Khor (lit.'rodent eaters' in Persian) and Marmulak-Khor (lit.'lizard eaters') are used for both Sunni and Shiite Arabs. [3]

Azerbaijanis

In 1926, the Azerbaijani language became prohibited in Iran for the first time. The head of the state at the time, Reza Shah appointed Dr. Mohseni as the chair of the "Cultural Office of Azerbaijan", who was infamous for his order: [4]

Put donkey reins on whoever dares to speak Turkish in the classroom and throw them in the stable amongst the donkeys.

Tork-e Khar is a phrase traditionally used for Azerbaijanis [5] and Turks, [6] literally meaning the "Turkish donkey". [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurds</span> Iranian ethnic group

Kurds or Kurdish people are an Iranic ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in West Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria. There are exclaves of Kurds in Central Anatolia, Khorasan, and the Caucasus, as well as significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey and Western Europe. The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.

Anti-Arab racism, also called Anti-Arabism, Anti-Arab sentiment, or Arabophobia, refers to feelings and expressions of hostility, hatred, discrimination, fear, or prejudice toward Arab people, the Arab world or the Arabic language on the basis of an irrational disdain for their ethnic and cultural affiliation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurdistan</span> Region of West Asia with a historical Kurdish presence

Kurdistan, or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo-cultural region in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. Geographically, Kurdistan roughly encompasses the northwestern Zagros and the eastern Taurus mountain ranges.

Racism in Japan comprises negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity which are held by various people and groups in Japan, and have been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices and action at various times in the history of Japan against racial or ethnic groups.

<i>Ajam</i> Arabic word referring to people whose first language is not Arabic

ʿAjam is an Arabic word for a non-Arab, especially a Persian. It was historically used as a pejorative—figuratively ascribing muteness to those whose native language is not Arabic—during and after the Muslim conquest of Iran. Since the early Muslim conquests, it has been adopted in various non-Arabic languages, such as Turkish, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Kurdish, Malay, Sindhi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Kashmiri, and Swahili. Today, the terms ʿAjam and ʿAjamī continue to be used to refer to anyone or anything Iranian, particularly in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. Communities speaking the Persian language in the Arab world exist among the Iraqis, the Kuwaitis, and the Bahrainis, in addition to others. A number of Arabs with Iranian heritage may have the surname ʿAjamī (عجمي), which has the same meaning as the original word.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forced assimilation</span> Involuntary cultural assimilation of minority groups

Forced assimilation is the involuntary cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups, during which they are forced by a government to adopt the language, national identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality, perceptions, way of life, and often the religion and ideology of an established and generally larger community belonging to a dominant culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinjar</span> Town in Nineveh, Iraq

Sinjar is a town in the Sinjar District of the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. It is located about five kilometers south of the Sinjar Mountains. Its population in 2013 was estimated at 88,023, and is predominantly Yazidi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurdish population</span> Ethnic group

The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million. Most Kurdish people live in Kurdistan, which today is split between Iranian Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkish Kurdistan, and Syrian Kurdistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Turkish sentiment</span> Hostility, fear or intolerance against Turkish peoples

Anti-Turkish sentiment, also known as Being based, or Turkophobia is hostility, intolerance, or xenophobia against Turkish people, Turkish culture and the Turkish language.

Anti-Iranian sentiment or Iranophobia, also called anti-Persian sentiment or Persophobia, refers to feelings and expressions of hostility, hatred, discrimination, or prejudice towards Iran, the Iranian government, or Iranian people on the basis of an irrational disdain for their national and cultural affiliation. The opposite phenomenon, in which one holds notable feelings of love or interest towards Iranian people for the same reasons, is known as Iranophilia or Persophilia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Armenian sentiment</span> Strong aversion and prejudice against Armenians

Anti-Armenian sentiment, also known as anti-Armenianism and Armenophobia, is a diverse spectrum of negative feelings, dislikes, fears, aversion, racism, derision and/or prejudice towards Armenians, Armenia, and Armenian culture.

The article describes the state of race relations and racism in the Middle East. Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 174 states parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by April 8, 2011. In different countries, the forms that racism takes may be different for historic, cultural, religious, economic or demographic reasons.

The Durban Review Conference is the official name of the 2009 United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), also known as Durban II. The conference ran from Monday 20 April to Friday 24 April 2009, and took place at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference was called under the mandate of United Nations General Assembly resolution 61/149 with a mandate to review the implementation of The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action from the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance which took place in Durban, South Africa.

The majority of the population of Iran consists of Iranic peoples. The largest groups in this category include Persians, mostly referred to as Fars and Kurds, with other communities including Semnanis, Khorasani Kurds, Larestanis, Khorasani Balochs, Gilakis, Laks, Mazandaranis, Lurs, Tats, Talysh and Baloch.

In the Arab world, racism targets non-Arabs and the expat majority of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf coming from South Asian groups as well as Black, European, and Asian groups that are Muslim; non-Arab ethnic minorities such as Armenians, Africans, the Saqaliba, Southeast Asians, Druze, Jews, Kurds, and Coptic Christians, Assyrians, Persians, Turks, and other Turkic peoples, and South Asians living in Arab countries of the Middle East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurdish separatism in Iran</span> Separatist dispute

Kurdish separatism in Iran or the Kurdish–Iranian conflict is an ongoing, long-running, separatist dispute between the Kurdish opposition in Western Iran and the governments of Iran, lasting since the emergence of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xenophobia and discrimination in Turkey</span>

In Turkey, xenophobia and discrimination are present in its society and throughout its history, including ethnic discrimination, religious discrimination and institutional racism against non-Muslim and non-Sunni minorities. This appears mainly in the form of negative attitudes and actions by some people towards people who are not considered ethnically Turkish, notably Kurds, Armenians, Arabs, Assyrians, Greeks, Jews, and peripatetic groups like Romani people, Domari, Abdals and Lom.

Anti–Middle Eastern sentiment is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against people who belong to or originate from the various ethnic groups of the Middle East. Although it is commonly associated with Islamophobia, as Muslims constitute the majority of the region's population, it is a distinct type of hatred in itself and may not always stem from religion-based animosity. People who harbour negative feelings towards the region's people view them as barbaric and inferior on racial, ethnic, cultural, or religious grounds, or a combination of any of these factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Kurdish sentiment</span> Hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Kurds

Anti-Kurdish sentiment, also known as anti-Kurdism or Kurdophobia, is hostility, fear, intolerance or racism against the Kurdish people, Kurdistan, Kurdish culture, or Kurdish languages. A person who holds such positions is sometimes referred to as a "Kurdophobe".

Garnik Serobi Asatrian is an Iranian-born Armenian professor who studies and teaches Kurdish culture at Yerevan State University in Yerevan, Armenia.

References

  1. "UN anti-racism panel finds Iran discriminating against Arabs, Kurds, other minoritiesdate=August 27, 2010". Associated Press, Fox. 2015-03-27. Archived from the original on September 3, 2010. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  2. "The U.N. urged Iran to tackle racism". Reuters. August 27, 2010. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  3. Hagigat et al. 2015, pp. 12–13.
  4. Asgharzadeh 2007, pp. 142.
  5. 1 2 Broers, Laurence (25 July 2019). Armenia and Azerbaijan: Anatomy of a Rivalry. Edinburgh University Press. p. 371. This is symptomatic of a tradition depicting Azerbaijanis negatively as tork-e khar ('Turkish donkeys'), i.e. rural and backward.
  6. Hagigat et al. 2015, pp. 13.

Bibliography