February 27, 2021
 |
| Masoud Pezeshkian, former Minister of Health and Member of Parliament from Tabriz, Azerbaijan. |
Masoud Pezeshkian, the former Vice President of Iran’s Tenth Parliament and the current representative of Tabriz in the Eleventh Parliament, emphasized the necessity of implementing Article 15 of the Constitution (teaching in mother tongues). He stated that the insults directed at ethnic groups and languages have led some to lean toward "separatism, secessionism, and affinity for foreign and alien countries."
On Friday, February 8, 2021, in an interview with Ensaf News, Pezeshkian said:
“People are driven toward separatism and secessionism when the basic legal rights of an ethnic group are ignored. Then we start accusing them of being this or that. Who caused this? It was you who denied them these rights—not anyone else! If you had adhered to the legal framework and refrained from insulting an ethnicity, language, or culture, you would see how that group or faction would not want to separate itself from its country or turn toward foreign lands. This inclination is something we created.”
He continued:
“In this country, we provide classes for English, Arabic, German, French, and other languages, but we don’t establish classes for Turkish, Kurdish, Luri, Balochi, and so on. Just establish the classes! There’s no harm in that. For English, German, and French, classes can be set up anywhere, but we won’t allow such classes for these languages. Instead, we label them as wanting separatism. But when you reject my language—my ethnicity’s language—why should I accept you? This rejection reflects the toxic effects of our behavior on society.”
Pezeshkian stressed:
“In my opinion, if the government, our cultural authorities, and those in decision-making and policymaking roles adhere to the Constitution and formulate regulations to meet the inherent and natural expectations of the people, it will be effective. After all, God created me as a Turk, and I cannot accept someone insulting my language, ethnicity, or culture. These are plots drawn by enemies to weaken us. If someone does this, what guarantee is there that I will accept it and bow down? I won’t accept it, and when I don’t, they call me a separatist!”
Mother Tongue
The mother tongue is one of the first windows through which individuals engage with the world around them. It serves as a gateway to dialogue and the transmission of culture. Suppressing the mother tongue nurtures a generation that does not understand its native language and is drawn toward other countries—an inclination born from the government’s behavior toward them.
Iran, as a multilingual country, has yet to ensure equality and justice for all its languages. The demand for the rights of mother tongue equality has often been perceived as a threat to “national unity and identity,” hindering progress in this area.
The designation of “International Mother Language Day” underscores the importance of preserving and safeguarding mother tongue rights. This day, established by UNESCO, aims to:
- Protect all languages as humanity’s shared heritage,
- Ensure equal rights for all languages within a country,
- Advocate for the right to education in the mother tongue,
- Establish and expand multilingual media and education systems, and
- Eliminate linguistic discrimination.
UNESCO: The Mother Tongue is Humanity’s Heritage
To support and preserve endangered languages and defend the rights of minority languages within countries, UNESCO has recognized the mother tongue as part of “humanity’s heritage.”
Some opponents of the mother tongue in Iran argue that national unity can only be achieved through a single national language, and they claim that global integration requires a shared language among nations. They believe that “smaller languages must disappear in favor of larger ones.”
This policy of imposing the official language at the expense of ethnic and mother tongues has led to the decline or stagnation of mother tongues in Iran, resulting in “a generation that does not know its mother tongue.”
According to UNESCO, “half of the 6,000 languages spoken worldwide are endangered,” with “about 3,000 languages seriously at risk of extinction, and the number of speakers of some languages dropping to fewer than 10,000—or even fewer than 1,000.”
Mohsen Renani: The Killing of Mother Tongues is a Form of 'Genocide' and 'Racism'
Mohsen Renani, a member of the Economics Department at the University of Isfahan, stated in an article:
“The mother tongue is like ‘indigenous architecture.’ Is it reasonable to demolish all rural houses or historic buildings in various regions and cities just because their architecture doesn’t resemble Tehran’s? If not, then why do we treat the mother tongues of ethnic groups—part of our civilizational heritage and societal wealth—this way? The killing of the mother tongue is no different from genocide and racism. A society that imposes one language on all mother tongues is a racist society seeking to dominate with what it deems the superior language. Whether you try to elevate one race above others, one language, one religion, or one ideology, it is all a form of racism.”
Renani believes that “the destruction of language leads to the destruction of culture, and the destruction of culture leads to the destruction of identity. When identity is destroyed, it is replaced by hatred and violence. The mother tongue is a tool for expanding social capital, and its destruction equals the destruction of social capital. We have mistakenly thought that Persianizing everything in non-Persian provinces would foster social cohesion. But that’s not the case. A forced language creates internal resistance in the learner, preparing them to seek revenge on the imposing group when the opportunity arises.”
The link to Pezeshkian's interview in Farsi:
دفاع پزشکیان از آموزش زبان مادری: تجزیهطلبی را ما ایجاد کردیم