Racism in Iran

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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 against Arab, Azeri, Balochi, and Kurdish communities and some communities of non-citizens. [2] Iran has been found by groups like CERD, [3] Human Rights Watch, [4] and Amnesty International [5] to be marginalizing and discriminating against people of non-Persian ethnicity via government crackdowns on dissent [6] and hampering access to health and housing services, [7] with ethnic Persians dominating the central government of Iran. [8]

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. [9]

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: [10]

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 [11] and Turks, [12] literally meaning the "Turk donkey". [11]

Afghans

The word "Afghani" or "Noonkhoshk" is used for Afghan People. Noonkhoshk means dry bread And Afghani is a term used to mock a Afghan person

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. ↑ "UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination publishes findings on Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, United Kingdom, and Venezuela". OHCHR. Retrieved 2026-01-11.
  4. ↑ "IRAN". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 2026-01-11.
  5. ↑ "Human rights in Iran". Amnesty International. Retrieved 2026-01-11.
  6. ↑ "Minorities in Iran have been disproportionally impacted in ongoing crackdown to repress the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement, UN Fact-Finding Mission says". OHCHR. Retrieved 2026-01-11.
  7. ↑ Press, Associated (2015-03-27). "UN anti-racism panel finds Iran discriminating against Arabs, Kurds, other ethnic minorities". Associated Press. Retrieved 2026-01-11.
  8. ↑ "U.S. Report: Ethnic & Religious Discrimination in Iran | The Iran Primer". iranprimer.usip.org. 2024-04-25. Retrieved 2026-01-11.
  9. ↑ Hagigat et al. 2015, pp. 12–13.
  10. ↑ Asgharzadeh 2007, pp. 142.
  11. 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.
  12. ↑ Hagigat et al. 2015, pp. 13.

Bibliography

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