Statement on the Occasion of International Mother Language Day

Mustafa Hijri, the current leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) issued a statement on the occasion of International Mother Language Day.

In his statement, Hijri regards the Kurdish language as a central component of the Kurdish national identity and stresses that it is why the Islamic Republic of Iran is not allowing the Kurdish children to have education in their mother tongue. The Islamic Republic is pursuing policies of forced assimilation vis-à-vis the non-Persian peoples and nations, he adds.

The PDKI leader reminds that hundreds of patriotic Kurdish teachers have, through their persistent struggle for the Kurdish language, prevented the Iranian regime’s dream of assimilation of the Kurdish language in the Persian language and culture from becoming a reality. Many brave teachers have paid a very high price for that struggle, he concludes.

At the end of his statement, Hijri congratulates all the brave teachers, students and those who care about the Kurdish language, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day.

Iran is a signatory to the relevant international conventions and a member of UNESCO. Article 9 of Iran’s Civil Code mandates the implementation of the international conventions ratified by the Iranian Parliament. However, not only has Iran failed to live up to its commitments, but according to Article 15 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Persian language is recognized as the only official language.

According to Amnesty International “ethnic minorities, including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchs, Kurds and Turkmen, continued to face entrenched discrimination, curtailing their access to education, employment and adequate housing. The Persian language remained the sole medium of instruction in primary and secondary education.”

Furthermore, the state’s de facto policies and actions clearly reveal that it treats the human right to education in mother tongue for the non-Persian peoples and nations as a threat to the “national security” and “territorial integrity” of Iran. For these reasons, the Iranian government is not willing to grant such a right to the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan, nor to the other non-Persian nations of the country.

The forced assimilation policies of the Iranian state take various forms; including the denial of the human right to education in mother tongue for national minorities; assimilation of the non-Persian population in the Persian language and culture; institutionalized degradation and humiliation of the languages and cultures of the non-Persian national minorities; forced demographic change in the regions of the non-Persian nations, including Iranian Kurdistan; as well as the use of the state’s economic resources in the service of such policies.