Roozbeh Bolhari – Radio Farda – February 22, 2013
Six hundred Azerbaijani students and graduates in journalism have written a letter to private media outlets in Iran, requesting that part of their content be published in Turkish.
This letter, coinciding with International Mother Language Day, was addressed to the editors-in-chief and managing directors of newspapers such as Shargh, Etemad, Bahar, and Arman, as well as magazines including Nasim Bidari, Aseman, Mehrnameh, and Andisheh Pouya.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared February 21—corresponding to Esfand 2 in the Persian calendar—as International Mother Language Day 14 years ago. Recognizing its importance, the UN General Assembly also designated 2008 as the International Year of Languages.
Saeed Peyvandi, a professor and cultural and social researcher based in Paris, previously told Radio Farda in an interview about the significance of naming this day:
"The goal is to draw attention to a phenomenon that humanity is acutely dealing with today: no language is spoken in isolation within a single country, and no country is entirely monolingual. This reality highlights the need to recognize that while most nations officially adopt one primary language for media, education, and administrative affairs, other languages are part of humanity's cultural heritage and the rights of a nation or social group."
The students and graduates who signed the letter criticized what they called the authorities’ disregard and lack of cultural and political will to address the deprivation of non-Persian languages in Iran.
According to Peyvandi:
"In Iran, there are other languages spoken by large segments of the population, and for many, Persian is not their first language. Since these languages are limited to informal, social, and familial contexts, this situation creates a social issue for the country."
The letter’s signatories wrote to the private media outlets:
"While learning, teaching, and using each of these languages could have opened a vast window to our cultural richness, we have instead confined ourselves to learning and writing in just one language. This has led to neglect, and in some cases, disregard for the preservation of other valuable linguistic and cultural heritages."
They called for at least one page of newspapers and sections of these media outlets to be published in Azerbaijani Turkish and expressed their willingness to provide content for Turkish-language pages. They argued that such an initiative would enhance national security and benefit the entire nation.
Article 15 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran states:
"The use of regional and ethnic languages in the press, mass media, and teaching their literature in schools, alongside Persian, is permitted."
Meanwhile, Hamed Ghader Marzi, a parliamentarian representing Qorveh and Dehgolan, wrote in Mardomsalari newspaper that recognizing and teaching ethnic groups' mother tongues would preserve and strengthen national cohesion and solidarity, given Iran's rich linguistic diversity.
Ghader Marzi rejected the notion that promoting and teaching mother tongues would lead to ethnic division or harm national unity. He stated:
"When ethnic groups see greater respect for their mother tongue, culture, and identity, they become more attached to their country, land, nation, and government."
He also called for recognizing International Mother Language Day in Iran's official calendar, establishing an academy for Iranian languages, and including the teaching of Iranian languages in schools.
The link to the original article in Farsi on Radio Farda from here.