|January 22, 2012
Iran's Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, recently stated that 40% of Iranians speak Turkish. However, this raises an important question: why do these millions of Turks, and other ethnic minorities, lack basic language rights in their own country? Despite their significant population, their mother tongue is not recognized in official settings, education, or media. The absence of language rights reflects a broader pattern of discrimination against ethnic minoritized groups in Iran, where cultural and linguistic diversity is often suppressed in favour of a centralized, Persian-dominated language, identity, and politics.