I must say that my time here has been quite touching and extremely informative. I’ve spoken with and gotten to know so many people people who have truly sacrificed so much of their lives for this movement. I will try to post whatever I have left unfinished in this blog when I get back home.

Today, Fakhteh threw me a going away party and I got to see many of the activists one last time before I leave. They were all so grateful of my blog and the work that I have done and it was quite touching.

I do wish that my time here was extended. I have so much work left to do. It is quite difficult to interview and talk to people in the movement when their schedules and locations are so far apart.

I want to thank everyone who has followed my blog and commented. And yes, that even includes Yek Irani. While I disagree with much of what he writes, he has made the discussion quite lively and presented the alternate view. For the most part, the discussions were fruitful. I especially want to thank those who were kind enough to allow me an interview. Despite the backlash that they knew they’d receive, they were kind enough to take the time to allow me to question them on their points.

All and all, I had a great time. I will continue blogging about this issue and continue my activism well beyond the end the of this fellowship (I shall let you all know where). There is much work to be done. To those activists who are reading my blog, keep up the good fight. You have my complete support!

Unfortunately, in my opinion, it does not give adequate coverage on all minority groups.

Check it out:

http://www.movie.article19film.com/

He (and with the help of a few constituents) is also the harshest and most vocal critic of Faktheh Zamani and Dr. Asgharzadeh on his website www.KavehFarrokh.com. Much of his writing against the Azerbaijani movement can be found under the heading “Historical Revisionism” and the sub-heading “pan-Turkism and pan-Altaism”. He also has a section which is devoted to pan-Arabism and discrediting the Ahwaz movement in the South of Iran. Much of the posts that claim that I am working for pan-Turks reference the posts on Kaveh Farrokh’s website.

In Dr. Farrokh’s defense, I did see a video on youtube where he is presented with an award from WAALM. In his speech, he discusses imagery from the ruins of Persepolis which show that nations from all over Persian empire were equal. I was quite moved by this and I was thinking how great would that be if it were the case in Iran today. So, I decided to e-mail Dr. Farrokh to get an interview with him on why he devotes pages on his website to discrediting Mrs. Zamani and Dr. Asgharzadeh. Unfortunately, I was late with my suggestion and caught him at a bad time, but here is the transcript of our exchange:

Me:

Dear Dr. Farrokh,

I currently have a human rights blog posed at representing minority rights in Iran. I am a peace fellow through the Advocacy Project, and I have been chosen to come to Vancouver to work with ADAPP to raise awareness on their organization.

Being that you are the most verbal critic of ADAPP, I wanted to see if I could get a chance to interview you on your side of the matter. My blog is meant to expose feelings that Azerbaijanis and other minorities have on racism in Iran and also to represent Iranian minority groups who are fighting for the ability to have courses in their mother tongues as well as celebrate heroes, such as Babak Khorramdin.

I want to get both sides on my blog. I am a strong proponent of Hegel’s dialectic and I think that dialog is the most important feature to bridge gaps between ideas. I am hear in Vancouver until August 21, 2009. If you have time next week, I would really love to sit and have a video interview. I watched your award speech on youtube and I really liked what you had to say about ancient Persia and various nations being equal regardless of language.

I want to assure you that my cause is a noble one. I was born in Urmia and raised in Washington D.C. I am not out to attack anyone. I just want to raise awareness on civil and human rights in Iran and I would really enjoy your side of the story and your struggle.

If you haven’t already read, by blog is at: http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/farzin/

-Farzin

Dr. Farrokh:

Dear Farzin (if I may),

Please call me Kaveh. Please note that I have never stated (in print or any other type of media) that minority groups should not speak, read or write their languages. In fact, you will see nothing of that sort in any of my humble writings or interviews: For example, kindly click “Historical revisionism” under my humble site: http://www.kavehfarrokh.com/

My struggle is specifically against historical revisionism, the use of incorrect information, falsified statistics or the re-writing of history to suit political ends. Ethnic chauvenism of any sort (including the Persian/Iranian) is simply wrong and must be condemned. The issue is using the legitimate right of language, culture, etc. in the politicized context of historical revisionism to promote ethnic divisiveness and singularity. Iran from its inception has been multi-lingual. As noted in my humble second book, the lingua franca or common language of the Achaemenid Empire was Aramaic and not Old Persian.

I do understand that certain individuals and groups with certain objectives would find my humble postings unpalatable. But the truth is that none of writings demand the implementation of one language only policies – my humble focus is (as noted): historical revisionism.

Chatting with you would be an honor but I may be away in the Republic of Georgia on an archaeological expedition from the 18th of August. If we cannot get to meet for now, please feel free to post my e-mail in your forum or site . Otherwise you and all readers (friendly or otherwise) can contact me at: manuvera@aol.com.

On a personal note, I am also of Azari descent (with a strong dose of Gorji roots – to me an Iranian such as myself is defined by diversity of language, customs, etc. Suppressing that ancient heritage of linguistic and cultural diversity is against the very foundation of Iran (past and present).

My best Regards
Kaveh

Me:

Dear Kaveh,

Thank you for your e-mail. I was very happy to see that you do promote the role of the various nations in Iran. The truth is that I was quite moved by your speech at the WAALM and it is a good way to bridge the gaps.

The reason I wanted to e-mail you is because you are a historian and are fighting against historical revisionism. However, I have seen (including on my own blog) many folk that have used your works as a pretext to limit language and cultural practices of all nations in Iran.

Being that you are an  Iranian, I cannot accept that you would believe that racism does not exist in Iran and among the community outside of Iran. My struggle is not one of history but of civil and human rights and I want to reiterate that my intentions are completely noble. I wanted to know your thoughts on the languages and cultures of Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Baluchis, Turkmens, Ahwazis, Qashqai, Korasanis, Georgians, Afghanis, Armenians etc. and if there should be a role in the overall historical study of Persia. It is my understanding that Persian education is quite aryan-centric and demonizes Gheghis Khan, Alexander the Great etc. Also, many Turkish empires that have existed have been dubbed such names as the “Persian empire under the Seljuks” for example.

Yek Irani on my blog writes about the onslaught of Turks and Mongolians against Persian culture. My blog is not one of history but of using history as a pretext for human and current civil rights abuses that are guaranteed in articles 15 and 19 of the Iranian constitution. I think minorities play a great role in the future of the state and the current policies and racism that is intrinsic in Iranian society is separating them. I would love to read your thoughts.

Kind regards,

-Farzin

Dr. Farrokh:

Farzin e Gerami,

I must profess that I am unqualified to speak of civil liberties and by the looks of things you are far more experienced than I am in this subject. This being said Iranians are not perfect (as I noted in one of posts – pan-Arabism I think). My view of the history of Iran is that it is characterized by diversity from its inception as I noted previously. So again, the issue of language instruction is no issue at all (for me anyhow) as this enhances the overall Iranian identity.

My main issues have been centered against Soviet-era (and czarist era) efforts to re-write Iran’s history and how these efforts were applied in the Transcaucasus. Russian and other European writers in the 19th century (and even in the present) want to downplay the common Turco-Persian or Persiante civilization in favor of separate Iranian and Turkish realms with the aim of having these confront each other. In fact they are one in many ways. I have opened a new link here which may interest you:

http://www.kavehfarrokh.com/persianate-civilizations/turco-iranian-civilization/

Also, in the new blog I emphasize how Turkic peoples actually helped the revival of Persian civilization here:

http://www.kavehfarrokh.com/news/the-lion-and-sun-motif-of-iran-a-brief-analysis/

My comments on Iran’s contemporary politics are invalid I think as I am no political activist and have no such qualifications. My main focus is on challenging historical revisionism wherever it may be (as you may see in my website links). This being said it would be great to chat, so let us keep in touch – hopefully we can touch base upon my return from Georgia.

My Best Regards
Kaveh
p.s. please feel free to post this if you wish

I really regret not having the chance to interview Dr. Farrokh, but I was please to see that he is in support of the proliferation of various languages in Iran. Hopefully, I can interview him upon a return trip to Vancouver that I will make in the future. And maybe possibly I can successfully convince Dr. Farrokh that we are engaged in a human rights struggle and not one of encroaching on Persian history, (the reversal of which is practiced in Iran today).  I thank Dr. Farrokh for allowing me to post these e-mails on my blog. Once again, this shows that dialogue is the best avenue for understanding and compromise.

Dr. Asgharzadeh: The supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s father was an Azeri from the city of Khameneh, but his mother is Persian and he himself was born in the Persian city of Mashhad. A few weeks ago, on the occasion of The Mother’s Day in Iran, a group of children and adolescents were visiting him. And in this visit he talked about his own childhood, his upbringing, and his parents, identifying his mother as a Persian and a “Hafez-Shenas” (someone well-versed in Hafez, the great Persian poet). So his mother tongue is Farsi but he has picked up some Azeri words from his Azerbaijani father which he occasionally blabbers–for the sheer purpose of demagoguery– when he visits Azerbaijani cities or when Azerbaijanis visit him. Interestingly enough, the leader of current opposition movement, Mir-Hussein Mousavi, too, is an Azeri-Turk, born in the Azerbaijani town of Khameneh and migrated with his family to the capital city of Tehran at the age of 12. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to assume that, in the context of Iranian politics, ethnic lineage plays any role in disturbing Iran’s dominant national identity as modeled on the identity of the Persian ethnic group.

People like Mousavi and Khamenei are assimilated Azerbaijanis to whom the local Azeri vernacular refers as “Manqurt”: i.e., someone who has forsaken his/her own roots and embraced the identity of the dominant to the exclusion of his/her former identity. Put differently, a “Manqurt” is someone who assumes someone else’s identity and at the same time fights against the “former” community from which he or she has originally come. As such, it would be a mistake to presume that Mousavi’s ascendency to power will bring about any improvement in the condition of his Azerbaijani community, just as the role of Khamenei as the supreme leader has not done so. If anything, the dominant Persian group uses the examples of individuals like Khamenei and Mousavi to deny the existence of racial/ethnic discrimination in the country, employing these assimilated figures as decoys to masquerade its domination of non-Persian communities.

Conversely, the elite and assimilated members of non-Persian communities whole-heartedly support the dominant group and its racist/exclusionary policies vis-à-vis the marginalized communities. These “Manqurts” include elite members of parliament, heads of local and provincial apparatuses of government, mayors, governorates, university presidents, local educational authorities, heads of police stations and military units, and so on and so forth. In terms of representing the rights of local communities, the “Manqurts” not only fully support the repression of human/ethnic/linguistic rights of their community members, they even go farther than the central government’s oppressive policies in an attempt to show their loyalty to the state which in turn guarantees their positions of power and privilege. This process could be viewed in recent Iranian election, where the choice between the Persian candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Azeri candidate Mir-Hussein Mousavi, to Iran’s Azeri population was clearly a choice between Scylla and Charybdis.

Me: Does Racism exist among Iranians outside of Iran?

Dr. Asgharzadeh: Yes, it does and its degree depends on their socialization, their age, etc. Usually, it is not that prevalent among younger generations particularly if they grow up in multi-racial environments. However, it is more rampant among the older generation who has come with its cultural and linguistic baggage from the old country. Among members of this group- many of them highly educated- you’ll see a lot of references to Aryan race, Aryan blood, superior civilization, superior language, and that sort of things. Anti-Semitism, anti-Arabism and anti-Turkism are also very prevalent among them.

Particularly, in recent years we have witnessed the emergence in Iranian Diaspora of a group of hooligans and, if you will, intellectual thugs, who run around and blatantly attack whoever talks of Iran’s Azerbaijani or Turkic population, a population which numbers over 20 million. Whoever defends the rights of this particular community, even the scholars who do objective research on the situation of this community in Iran, and even those members of the community who self-identify as Azerbaijani-Turks are attacked by these racist thugs who, using various pseudonyms, label these individuals as “pan-Turkist” and so forth. In my book, Iran and the Challenge of Diversity, I have given some samples of racist literature produced in Iranian Diaspora.

Me: Let us turn to your book then. When was it written and what is it about? Can you explain its core arguments?

Dr. Asgharzadeh: My book Iran and the Challenge of Diversity: Aryanist Racism, Islamic Fundamentalism, and Democratic Struggles, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in the summer of 2007. Basically, the book explores a number of important questions such as: How is the racist order produced, maintained, and perpetuated in contemporary Iran? How do the acts of othering, misrepresentation, and racism take place through works of literature, history, religion, and other textual/discursive means? What role does language play throughout the processes of ‘otherization,’ foreignization, cultural annihilation, and assimilation in contemporary Iran? What are the ramifications of Aryanist racism for Iran’s non-Persian ethnic groups? How do the victims of this racism engage in acts of resistance against the ongoing racial/ethnic oppression? What role can the intellectuals, scholars, social activists, and the education system play in helping to eliminate racism in Iranian society?

The book, then, seeks to establish the existence of racism and its detrimental ramifications for social, political, economic, and educational developments in Iran. It examines the role of Europe, and the West in general, in the origination and development of modern racism in Iran. It also explores possible mechanisms, ways, and sites through which racism can be eliminated in Iran, for instance through empowering the marginalized languages; providing space for the expression of indigenous histories; reforming the education system, etc. In so doing, the book deconstructs the dominant Euro-centric ideas of nation, nationalism, nation-statism and Aryanism in an Iranian context. It implicates the dominant members of Farsi-speaking community in their capacity as writers, poets, and intellectuals in producing, reproducing, and maintaining unequal ethnic, cultural, and linguistic relations in the country. At the same time, it provides a space for marginalized communities in Iran to articulate their condition through their own voices, in their own languages, and by way of their own literatures, as opposed to being exclusively represented through the dominant Persian language and literature. It redefines and rearticulates the question of citizenship based on equal cultural, linguistic, and human rights of each citizen, each collectivity, and each community. This rearticulation challenges the dominant notion of citizenship, which has granted the ownership of the country to certain group(s) based on their ‘Aryan-ness.’

Me: What was some of the backlash you have received as a result of your work and your book? Have you yourself experienced any direct racism?

Dr. Asgharzadeh: Well, to expose Aryanist racism in Iran, to talk about ethnic, linguistic and cultural rights for the non-Persian communities, these are taboo topics among Iranians, regardless of whether they are inside Iran or in Iranian Diaspora outside, and regardless of whether they are a part of the current Islamic regime or a part of its opposition. This is an act of daring, a speaking of truth to power. And when you do that, the power reacts. This reaction takes many forms, from the blocking of your publications in Iran-related and Middle East-related academic journals to attacking you in conferences and seminars to threats of getting you expelled from your job and so on and so forth.

Recently a progressive Canada-based Persian newspaper named Shahrvand interviewed me on the events leading to the tenth election and its aftermath in Iran. In response to one of the questions, I compared the current political regime in Iran to the Apartheid system in South Africa and said that, in order to defeat the current fascistic regime in Iran, we Iranians could learn a lot from the struggle of South Africans as well as from the Civil Rights Movement in America. Soon after the interview was published, I received a threatening email from an “academic,” asking me, among other things, “How dare you compare the Aryan race of Iran to Black Africans?” The email concluded that if I had a single drop of Aryan blood in me, I wouldn’t disgrace “the Aryan nation of Iran” by suggesting that they should learn from “Black Africans.”

I suspect this email was coming from a group who has published a 300-plus page monologue to refute and reject my “false book.” Published on a well-known racist website, this monologue starts by an epigraph in Persian, depicting me as a “Mongol demon” with a Dracula face and long nails, “blood constantly dripping from his fingernails”… I think you can imagine how the rest of this brilliant critique unfolds. Suffice it to say that the only connection between my work and this “review” is my name that the anonymous authors remember to throw in every now and then. Other scholars such as Dr Reza Baraheni, Dr Brenda Shaffer, Dr Zia Sadrul-Ashrafi and courageous Azerbaijani human rights activists such as Ms. Fakhteh zamani have been regular victims of this group.

This group even managed to pressure the editors of “Ethnologue,” an international website pertaining to world’s languages, to reduce the size of Iran’s Azeri population from about 23.5 million to 11 million, and this, despite the warning that many scholars and human rights activists from the Azerbaijani community had given to the Ethnologue editors regarding this group. In an open letter to Ethnologue, these scholars complained about the aggressiveness of some ultra-nationalist Iranians abroad and expressed their hope “that the editors and researchers of Ethnologue will not cave in to various ultranationalist bullying, and will not allow Ethnologue’s scholarly reputation to be tarnished by ideologically motivated hyperboles.” Despite this, their prediction came through in Ethnologue’s latest issue: a whopping 12 million reduction in the number of Azeri-Turks in Iran!

Me: What in your opinion is the solution? Do you have any policy recommendations for government structure?

Dr. Asgharzadeh: I think we have to expose this racism and bring awareness to the world community about it, like the things that you guys are doing and ADAPP is doing. This is a first major step. In the course of recent elections, the government authorities emphatically made it clear that in the Islamic Republic of Iran “issues pertaining to ethnic minorities are considered a matter of national security” to the extent that even the regime’s own majles/parliament could not have any say on these issues. What this means is that in Iran, ethnic minority related issues are dealt with by the regime’s security agents. They are not even considered as normal social and political issues–let alone as human rights issues. Thus, we cannot expect much from the Islamic regime in this regard.

Me: What would Iran look like without racism?

Dr. Asgharzadeh: We have to remember that, what “blood” was for German Nazism, “language” is for Iranian racism. So I will leave you with this thought: when I see that millions of children belonging to Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Baluchi, Turkmen, Arab, Lur, Bakhtyari, Gilani and other communities have schools in their own languages, that will be a good sign towards the creation of an Iran without racism.

Me: Thank you very much Dr. Asgharzadeh. Your words have been insightful and inspiring.

Dr. Asgharzadeh

Dr. Asgharzadeh

Earlier in my blog posts, I mentioned that I regretted not giving adequate coverage on civil rights and racism in Iran. Being that my own personal experiences are quite limited to the Persian community outside of Iran, I decided to go to an expert, if not the foremost expert on racism in Iran against Azerbaijanis, Dr. Alireza Asgharzadeh.

Dr. Asgharzadeh holds a holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and currently a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at York University, Toronto, Canada. His areas of concentration and research include Globalization, Iranian Studies, Middle Eastern Cultures and Societies, Social Theory, the Sociology of Education, and Social Inequality, among others.  His work has been published in various journals, including: Middle East Review of International Affairs, Journal of Studies in International Education, Canadian and International Education, Language and Education, Journal of Educational Thought, Journal of Post-Colonial Education, Journal of African Studies, Anthropology and Education Quarterly.  His most recent book is Iran and the Challenge of Diversity: Aryanist Racism, Islamic Fundamentalism, and Democratic Struggles (This happens to be the book that I mentioned earlier that I was reading. I highly suggest it). He is also co-author of Schooling and Difference in Africa: Democratic Challenges in a Contemporary Context, and co-editor of Diasporic Ruptures: Globality, Migrancy,  and Expressions of Identity (in two volumes).  I’ve had the pleasure to talk to Dr. Asgharzadeh a few times and must note that he is truly an inspiring person and one of the most brilliant people that I have had ever met. Since he currently teaches in Toronto, I couldn’t get a chance to do a video interview, however I was able to communicate with him through e-mail. Since it’s quite long, I’ve broken it down. Here’s part 1 of our interview:

Me: First, if you would please introduce yourself, your profession, work and your background.

Dr Asgharzadeh: Generally, I consider myself a universal subject who has multiple identities and occupies multiple social and geographical locations: a world citizen, a Canadian, an Azerbaijani, an Iranian, a Turk, an Azeri-Canadian… As a young student I participated in Iran’s 1978-79 revolution. This revolution did not only transform the socio-political order in the country (for better or worse), it also fundamentally changed the way members of my generation thought about a variety of social, political, and cultural issues. I was simply fascinated by how ordinary people could bring down the most powerful institutions like the monarchy and the state in a society. Hence my interest in politics, social sciences, philosophy, etc. I have been passionately pursuing these interests ever since, and more academically since my arrival in Canada, from the late 1980s. I have studied political science, philosophy and sociology throughout my mature life, and now am teaching different aspects of these subjects at York University and the University of Toronto.

Me: Dr. Asgharzadeh, please describe the nature of racism in Iran, its history and who it affects.  Is racism in Iran an institution, or is it simply a societal flaw? Does racism serve as a tool of control?

Dr. Asgharzadeh: Well, in a nutshell, it all goes back to this Orientalist scholar named Sir William Jones and the observation that he made in 1786 regarding the affinity among various European languages, the Sanskrit and what he called in passing “the Old Persian.” In this brief speech to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Jones brought a fresh insight to the questions concerning the ancestral language of peoples of Europe and their original homeland, sparking a debate that eventually culminated in the creation of Comparative Linguistics and the Aryanist/Indo-Europeanist enterprise. This of course opened the floodgates for numerous European scholars, historians and philologists to try and establish a connection between White Europeans and the ancient East. Using mainly linguistic signs and traits, some of these scholars identified central Asia, some India, and some Iran as the original homeland of the white Nordic race, which later on came to be constructed as the infamous ‘Aryan race.’ A side from intellectual curiosity, the main objective for many Orientalists was to move ‘the white race’ as far away from Semitic races and Biblical traditions as possible. In Europe this enterprise reached its logical conclusion in fascism and Hitler’s Nazism. After Nazism, the Europeans became disillusioned with the entire enterprise of the so-called ‘Aryan race.’ Irrespective of this, the fascination with this illusory race continued in a different fashion in places like Iran and to some extent India, where certain groups saw an enormous opportunity in attaching themselves to this so-called ‘Aryan race’ and in identifying themselves as “Aryans.”

I should emphasize that William Jones and many of his contemporaries did not intend to purposely promote racism, anti-Semitism or fascism through their scholarship. They simply believed that they were engaged in scholarly research on Orient and the Orientals. The German scholar Max Muller had a major role in digging out the term “Arya” from ancient Sanskrit texts and redefining it, quite intentionally and erroneously, as a racial concept, as the name of a racial group. But he too came to his senses and quite vigorously repudiated this earlier conviction of his in 1888. Here is what he said in a book titled Biographies of words and the home of the Aryas:

“To me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar.” (1888, p. 120)

However, the Iranian elite, scholars and government were not ready to give up on this notion of “Aryan race” so easily, even after the fall of Nazism and Fascism in Europe. They built up on Max Muller and others’ earlier definitions and refashioned a definition of Arya as a purely racial group, building a whole new literature on “Aryan race” and how the true Iranians were carriers of this “superior race’s” not only language and culture but also genes and blood. This racist ideology, of course, had serious ramifications for Iran’s non-Persian and non-Indo-European communities, namely the Turks and the Semites (Arabs and Jews) along with others.

As you can imagine, this Iranian version of racialization was quite oxymoronic in the sense that in terms of skin color and physiology, the supposedly non-Aryan Turks and Semites had more resemblance to Hitler’s white-skinned, blue-eyed and blond-haired Aryans than the original Persians whom Hitler would probably classify under “the brown race” category. This simple discrepancy, however, did not stop our Persian Aryanists from advancing the strongest claims to “the superior Aryan race.” Logically, they didn’t (because they couldn’t) emphasize too heavily on “blood” and “skin color” the way Hitler did; they, however, placed a greater emphasis on “Persian language” and history–as if other people had no history and no language! In the Iranian reconstruction of Aryanist racism, then, the emphasis on “language” replaced the Nazist and Hitlerite emphasis on “blood” and “genes.”

In 1934, the Reza Shah government officially changed the name of the country from Mamalik-e Mahrouseh (protected countries) to Iran and defined it as “the land of Aryans.” Simultaneously the Persian ethnic group was singled out as the most authentic representative of these Aryans where the language of this group was seen as an Aryan- and hence superior- language, which was in turn translated into the banning of non-Persian languages from schools and government apparatuses. It is important to note that the term “Persia” was an Orientalist construct and has never been used by diverse ethnic groups to refer either to themselves or their country, neither historically nor currently.

In today’s Iran, just as throughout history, only the Persian ethnic group calls itself Persian. Irrespective of this, the Orientalist scholarship abroad still insists on calling all residents of Iran Persian, which is a clear case of epistemic violence against non-Persian communities. Anyway, this notion of fixed Aryan/Persian identity has been imposed on Iran with no consideration for diversity, social dynamism and historical evolution. This process still continues and the non-Persian communities are left with no choice except to adopt this “superior Aryan” identity by leaving behind their supposedly “savage and barbaric” heritage. This racism is reinforced through the education system, the media, as well as official and non-official literature produced in Persian language. In contemporary Iran then, Aryanism and Aryanization constitute the core of Iranian racism. We should also note that since 1979, Khomeinism and Shi’ist fundamentalism have been added to the existing Aryanist racism.

Me: Aside from the government, what kind of racism exists within Iranian society? You could use academic or anecdotal evidence.

Dr. Asgharzadeh: Basically, all sorts of racism(s) exist/s in this society, from systemic to individualistic, cultural, linguistic, internalized, scientific and academic. For instance, lately there has been a lot of fuss about this presumably marvellous Iranian biologist who has apparently done DNA testing in a British university on the Azeri Turks, the Anatolian Turks and the Persians and has “successfully proven” that the Azerbaijani-Turks are not genetically related to the Anatolian Turks but are (genetically) almost the same as the Aryan Persians! They have been talking about this for the past couple of years and we are all anxiously waiting to see when the results of these “path-breaking experiments” are going to be published and in what esteemed scientific journal! I for one, am very interested in seeing the kind of research methodology, the size of research population, and the kind of terminologies and their definitions (e.g., race, racism, etc) that are used by this brilliant scientist. As you can imagine, the dominant group in Iran constructs all these hyperbolic racist discourses to deny one basic human right to over 20 million Turks in Iran: Education in their own natural language.

Jundullah claims to be fighting for the rights of Iran’s Baluch minority but is often linked by the regime in Tehran to al-Qaida, and to the west. It has been blamed for drug smuggling, kidnapping and attacks on civilians and revolutionary guards and appears to be based across the border in Pakistani Baluchistan. Iranian media quoted one of the condemned men as “confessing” that the group was trained and financed by “the US and Zionists”.

For Jundullah, they see the legitimacy of their actions, including drug smuggling as a form of revenue for an otherwise economically deprived community. This group is among the most, if not the most economically deprived minorities in Iran. In many cases though, they are falsely forced into confessions of drug trafficking since drug trafficking in punishable by death.

Unfortunately, the election crisis has overshadowed the issue of minority rights in Iran. While Azerbaijanis have remained quiet since June 15, this hasn’t stopped human rights violations against Azerbaijanis in cases which began before the election crisis. Alireza Farshi is still in the custody of the Ministry of Intelligence without access to a lawyer and is at risk of torture; his health status unknown. (Fortunately, his wife Sima Didar was released, but on bail of 50,000.) Last month, Said Matinpour was sentenced to 8-years at Evin Prison and is a Prisoner of Conscience. Unfortunately, our efforts to send reports on their behalf to western governments as well as certain International Human Rights Organizations have proved unfruitful, since they are only accepting information on the post-election crisis. So as you can imagine, things dramatically slowed down since the beginning of the summer, despite our efforts to keep pushing forward.

But I did want to take some time in this blog to reflect on my experience thus far. Before coming to Vancouver, I knew little information about the situation of minorities in Iran. My parents had told me stories of discrimination and racism in Iranian society against Azerbaijani Turks, however, I never had any idea that it was this serious. For them, it seemed nothing more than a way of life.  Racism would occasionally anger them but they had a “c’est la vie” attitude about the jokes and forced Persianization. Things are becoming different.

Though the movement is still young and identity re-inspiration for Azerbaijanis is still in its early stages, it is growing rapidly. A partial aspect of the movement, which I have failed to give enough credit, is Azerbaijani civil rights and re-establishment of the Azerbaijani ethnicity and identity. The nationalism reforms, which began in 1925, sought to create “one identity and one nation.” Since the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan (and further exacerbated by the arrests at Babak Castle and the May 2006 protests) Azerbaijanis have begun to redefine what makes them ethnically different to Persians; this is a phenomenon that some refer to as an “awakening movement.”

This fellowship has proven to be a very rewarding experience for me, as I have explored and solidified my own identity as an Azerbaijani. It is a feeling of a connection that words cannot describe. In college, I read Amin Maalouf’s In the Name of Identity, which I recommend to all. Maalouf points out that identity is not singular. One can identify with race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ideology, community groups, nations, states, provinces, alma matters, humanity or even life on earth. All of these put together creates one’s identity. Identification solely along one of these lines is actually dangerous. They can create an “ends justify the means” attitude that we see in communism, islamism and nationalism.

Therefore, Iran cannot be labeled a Persian nation. Yes, Persians are the dominant ethnic group. Just the same, you cannot label Russia, a slav nation; or China, a Han nation. You can’t label the United States as a white nation. I would like to break the association of Iran and Persian or Fars identity. Iran is a land of many nations.

I strongly believe that differentiation and identity are beautiful things, however those differences must be respected. For example, solely identifying oneself as Persian or Azerbaijani is counter-productive and can lead to a definition of the “other”. Amin Maalouf says that one identifies oneself with a group to a greater degree if that group is threatened. As an Azerbaijani, my identity has been threatened by the Islamic Republic for quite some time. I whole-heartedly identify myself as an Azerbaijani. I also identify myself as an Iranian, which has also been threatened by the Islamic Republic and exacerbated in the post-election crisis. While doing this work, I have made sure to attend various rallies in Vancouver to show solidarity with all Iranians in the post-election struggle. This brings me back to what I had begun to discuss at the onset of this post. I am deeply saddened by the murder of 219 Iranians this year. I truly hope that in any subsequent administration, civil and human rights for all of the nations of Iran will be respected. As an Azerbaijani, I hope that my mother tongue as well as the right to celebrate my distinct culture and celebrate my national heroes will be respected. Iran will one day be a society free of racism and authoritarian control.

To reiterate, this has been quite a powerful and greatly humbling experience for me.  I hope to spend the next few weeks editing videos and bringing you information from those who have personally experienced racism and human rights abuses in Iran.

http://www.ethnologue.com/15/show_country.asp?name=IR

On the above link, Ethnologue shows Azerbaijanis at 23.5 million in Iran. This is the former entry.

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IR

The above link is the current page which shows roughly 11.2 million.

From my understanding, the majority of the demonstrations have been localized in Tehran, with random demonstrations in other cities of Iran with predominantly Persian populations. This is strictly my perspective, but I believe that Ahmadinejad has more popular support in Iran than Western media will have you believe. He has expanded social welfare programs for Iran’s poor and continues to do so.  In the 1979 revolution, the ordinary people rose to protest the shah’s economic policies, which marginalized the poorer classes; this key element is lacking today. This, coupled with Ahmadinejad’s refusal to back down from American threats, have left certain groups of people in Iran to strongly support the man. I’m not saying that the elections were not fraudulent (only time will show the true results); I’m just saying that a popular uprising is not likely and it is my understanding that the minority regions of Iran understand this and so they are not getting involved.

I must, however, contend that the current protests and demonstrations have been youth-driven (which compromise the majority of the population in Iran) for expansion of social freedoms. Although, I believe that it will take more than this to spark a a change in the Islamic regime. It seems that the regime is here to stay for now.

For the past couple of weeks, an Azerbaijani activist who works for ADAPP came from Toronto to help us out here in Vancouver. I can’t tell you enough how much I learned from him. Along with being forced to practice my Azerbaijani Turkish, I learned more about the politics and issues about our cause. I taught him how to use the flip cam, which was given to us by Advocacy Project. He will spending his time filming and editing videos from the activists in Toronto and posting it to ADAPP’s youtube site.

I also wanted to bring to your attention this week some items that I thought further explain a few of the problems with minorities in Iran:

Iran, Regionalism, Ethnicity and Democracy – This is an excellent article on the movement. It explains the myth of foreign influence in Azerbaijan and puts to rest fears of secession.

The Azerbaijani Question in Iran – Gives a history of the root of Azerbaijani demands in Iran.

Iran’s anti-arab racism: Explains the situation and racism faced by Ahwazi Arabs of Iran’s south, although it is rather anti-American.

In the next couple of weeks, I shall be bringing you interviews from some of the activists and advocates involved in the Azerbaijani linguistic and civil rights movement.

Currently, ADAPP is in the process of applying for charitable status and we are restructuring to do so. With charitable status, ADAPP can issue tax receipts for its donations. A requirement for this is that 80% of ADAPP’s funding that is received under its charitable account must go to education and only 20% is reserved for other expenses such as overhead and advocacy. Fakhteh is the Executive Director of ADAPP, but not a member of the board of directors. She heads a working group, which including myself, are mostly Iranian Azerbaijanis, with a few Canadian and American human rights volunteers.

Furthermore, ADAPP boasts a 6-member board, headed by newly-elected president Margaret Morgan, who are all current members of Amnesty International in Canada, neither of whom are Azerbaijanis. Now to those who think ADAPP has questionable activities: a board of Amnesty members would hardly allow this organization to participate in pan-Turkic activities. Every position on the board is completely volunteer.

As for funding, ADAPP receives a nominal amount from human rights organizations. Other funding comes from donations and membership fees. To be honest, a lot of the organization’s expenses have come from Fakhteh’s own pockets. ADAPP operates on a very tight and small budget. At this point, Fakhteh and I, have been involved in grantwriting to various funds to receive money for some future educational projects that we hope will raise awareness on racism in Iran.