Faraj Sarkohi - Radio Farda - 25 February 2010
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| Faraj Sarkohi |
Most state-run and semi-state media in Iran largely ignored International Mother Language Day (February 21), despite the issue of "mother tongue" being not only one of the most significant cultural issues but also one of the most sensitive political challenges in Iran. Equal rights for all languages in a multilingual country is one of the main markers of democracy and equality among all citizens under the law.
Protecting languages at risk of extinction and advocating for the rights of minority languages that are marginalized and oppressed by dominant ones are among the core objectives of International Mother Language Day.
Iran: A Multilingual Country
The geopolitical entity historically known as Iran, from the Medes and the Achaemenid Empire to the present, has always been a multilingual country. The ancient, middle, and Dari Persian languages, contrary to the perception of some nationalists, have never been defining elements of Iranian nationality or identity, nor markers of belonging to this entity.
Some outdated schools of thought considered "a single common language" as a component of nationhood, but examining multilingual countries, civilizations, and cultures like Iran, India, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, and others reveals that this criterion is not universal.
For at least two centuries after Islam, Dari Persian evolved beyond being merely an administrative and official language in Iran, becoming the language of the nation's written literature. Some of the greatest Turkish-speaking talents, such as Nizami Ganjavi and Rumi, created their most valuable works in Persian. This tradition, whether voluntarily or due to imposed circumstances, persisted into modern times.
Policies depriving non-Persian-speaking Iranians of the right to education and publication in their mother tongues, excluding non-Persian languages from media and administrative documents in regions where the majority or entirety of the population speaks a language other than Persian, and the systematic suppression of non-Persian languages during the reigns of Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi played a crucial role in perpetuating this tradition.
In some monolingual countries like Germany and France, a single language is a marker of national identity, but in multilingual countries like Iran, the primary or official language cannot serve as such a marker.
In multilingual countries with decentralized and democratic political structures, where citizens and their languages enjoy equal rights, including the right to education and publication in their mother tongues, linguistic diversity is not a source of discord, oppression, or separatism but rather a fertile ground for cultural enrichment, elevation, and creative exchange.
Minority Languages: From Culture to Politics
According to a UNESCO report, which designated February 21 as International Mother Language Day, half of the 6,000 languages spoken globally are on the verge of extinction.
UNESCO experts argue that with the disappearance of each language, a part of humanity's cultural treasure is lost. In Iran, smaller languages like Tati face such a fate.
However, the political sensitivity surrounding mother tongues in Iran is not primarily about smaller languages like Tati but major ones such as Turkish, Kurdish, Baluchi, Armenian, and others. This sensitivity stems from both the suppression of these languages in favor of Persian by the central government and separatist tendencies in some regions.
The official ideology during Reza Shah's reign, coinciding with the establishment of modern schools across the country, was shaped by "the revival of the grandeur of ancient Persian monarchies" and nationalism leaning towards chauvinism. As a result, Persian was designated not only as the official and administrative language but also as the sole permissible language in educational institutions, media, and publications. Other languages were thus denied the right to education, publication, growth, and development.
Mohammad Reza Shah continued his father's policy of suppressing non-Persian languages.
In Iran’s educational system, Persian-speaking children learn to read and write in their mother tongue in the early years of schooling. However, non-Persian-speaking children face significant discrimination and inequality, as they are forced to learn a new and unfamiliar language. This results in educational setbacks for them in their early school years.
According to the Iranian Parliament's Research Center, the majority of the 5 million students "who have failed in the past six years" are non-Persian-speaking children.
Official statistics indicate that non-Persian speakers constitute a majority in Iran, outnumbering Persian speakers.
Denying the majority of a country’s population their cultural rights, excluding non-Persian languages from equal status with the official language under the pretext of preserving national unity, inevitably leads to inequality and discrimination among citizens and can provoke extreme and negative reactions on both sides.
Linguistic and cultural discrimination among citizens of the same country undermines national unity and transforms objections from cultural and linguistic concerns into political issues, potentially triggering major political crises under favorable conditions.
Separatist tendencies that occasionally surface in Iran’s history can also, to some extent, be attributed to objections against linguistic discrimination, although historical, political, and other factors also play a role.
Mother Tongue Education and Democracy
Mother tongue education, which must necessarily be accompanied by education in the country's official language, is a complex issue in a multilingual country like Iran. It requires educational and financial resources, scientific planning, the adoption of successful global experiences, and, most importantly, a transformation of the political structure.
Successful experiences in multilingual education worldwide demonstrate that such reforms are unachievable in centralized systems. Reforms such as mother tongue education, transforming monolingual media into multilingual ones, and producing administrative documents in both the regional and official languages can only be realized through a transition from centralized systems to forms of autonomy or federal systems.
These experiences highlight the close link between mother tongue education, other linguistic reforms guaranteeing equal rights for all languages and citizens, and the establishment of democracy and the decentralization of political power. Historical experiences also show that imposing a single language on all nations and ethnicities in a multilingual country is characteristic of authoritarian governments.
The Islamic Constitution and Mother Tongues
Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution acknowledges certain rights for non-Persian languages but denies some of their most fundamental rights, including the right to mother tongue education.
According to this article:
"The official and common language and script of the people of Iran is Persian. Official documents, correspondence, and texts, as well as textbooks, must be in this language and script. However, the use of regional and ethnic languages in the press and mass media, and the teaching of their literature in schools, in addition to Persian, is permitted."
The first clause of this article recognizes Iran’s multilingual population but denies the right to mother tongue education by emphasizing that "textbooks must" be written in Persian.
This clause also stipulates that "official documents, correspondence, and texts" must be in Persian.
The second clause of Article 15 permits "the use of regional and ethnic languages in the press and mass media, and the teaching of their literature in schools, in addition to Persian."
However, even this clause, especially regarding teaching literature in various languages in schools, has not been implemented. Full implementation of this clause would still not eliminate inequality and discrimination among Iranian citizens and the country's existing languages.
The link to the original article in Farsi on Radio Farda:
تنوع زبان های مادری در ايران و وحدت ملی