Ethnic activists in Iran call for education in ‘mother tongue’

Iran is a highly multilingual country, yet education in languages other than Persian (Farsi) is not permitted and its advocates often face persecution by security bodies for encouraging separatism.

This year, according to social media reports, activists in several northwestern cities, including Tabriz, Maragheh, and Ardabil, marked International Mother Language Day on February 21 by distributing children's books written in Turki on the streets.

Turki (also referred to as Azari) is the mother tongue of millions in the northwestern provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, Ardabil, and parts of Zanjan and other provinces. Similarly, in some Kurdish cities, activists celebrated the occasion by distributing leaflets and posters to raise awareness of their cause.

The United Nations General Assembly designated February 21 as International Mother Language Day in 1999 to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.

Iran is home to many ethnic groups, each with its own language, including Kurds, Turks, Gilaks, Baluchis, Arabs, and Turkmen. Turki, and Kurdish --mostly spoken in western province-- have the largest number of speakers.

Children singing in Turki at a shopping mall in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan, on International Mother Language Day

There are no official statistics on the number of speakers of these or other languages, such as Arabic, which is spoken in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, or Balochi, spoken in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. Many members of ethnic groups, specially in urban centers, speak Persian as all education, including textbooks, is in Persian.

The government often view the demand for education in native languages as linked to separatism and suppress its organized advocacy.

Persian has been the official language of most Iranian dynasties throughout the Islamic period, including the Safavid and Qajar dynasties, whose rulers were native speakers of Turki. It has also served as the country’s literary language and lingua franca.

Activists distributing posters and leaflets in the Kurdish city of Marivan on International Mother Language Day.

Before the establishment of a modern educational system in 1925 by Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi Dynasty, literacy was largely restricted to the upper class and the clergy, who ran small schools called maktab to teach literacy. In 1936, maktabs were shut down, and primary education in new public schools became compulsory for all children.

Since then, Persian has remained the sole language of government, media and education in Iran, despite Article 15 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, which was drafted months after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. This article permits the use of ethnic languages in the press and media and allows for their literature to be taught alongside Persian in schools. However, the government has never implemented these provisions by incorporating ethnic languages into public education. Independent schools and language institutes are also barred from offering courses for other local languages.

While state-run provincial radio and television stations broadcast some programs in Kurdish, Turki, Arabic, Baluchi, and Turkmen, their content largely reflects the government’s Islamic ideology and propaganda.

Authorities frequently crack down on unofficial ethnic language classes conducted by volunteer “mother language” activists, particularly in Turki and Kurdish-speaking areas. For example, on February 21, the Kurdish human rights group Kurdpa reported that seven activists had been arrested over the past year for promoting the teaching of the Kurdish language and were sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison.

Advocates for teaching ethnic languages argue that their cultures and languages are at risk due to the dominance of Persian in Iran’s educational system. Critics, however, counter-argue that introducing education in non-Persian languages could weaken Persian’s role as the official language, threaten national unity by fueling sectarianism, complicate the education system, and increase its costs.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, a native speaker of both Turki and Kurdish, the languages spoken by his own parents, is one of the very few officials who has ever defended the right to giving official status to ethnic languages based on Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution. He argued against critics, when he was a lawmaker, that using these languages in schools, contrary to their beliefs, could even strengthen national unity.