Roghayeh Rezaei – IranWire – February 3, 2022
There are still more than two weeks left until International Mother Language Day, which falls on February 21. Nevertheless, thousands of individuals whose mother tongue is not Farsi have shared stories of their pain and suffering related to the Farsi language, as well as the humiliation and discrimination stemming from being non-Farsi, using the hashtag #MeAndFarsi on social media.
What is the #MeAndFarsi hashtag? Why has it been embraced by social media users? And what are the demands of the storytellers and campaign organizers? In this report, IranWire seeks answers to these questions through conversations with Sevil Suleymani, an Azerbaijani Turkish civil activist based in Virginia, USA, and Mohsen Rasouli, an activist for the right to mother-tongue education. Both are founders of the "End Monolingualism" campaign.
In recent days, approximately 1,000 tweets have been shared using the hashtag #MeAndFarsi on Twitter. Iranian users, primarily non-Farsi speakers, have used this hashtag in Farsi and English to talk about the hardships they face in life, education, and work due to Farsi not being their mother tongue. Others have also highlighted the structural discrimination and humiliation imposed on them by Iran’s political and social systems or by Farsi-speaking Iranian citizens.
The "End Monolingualism" campaign’s website, which initiated this movement, has compiled many of these posts, linking back to the original tweets by the storytellers.
As Sevil Suleymani, an Azerbaijani Turkish civil activist, told IranWire, this campaign was launched to raise awareness about the systematic and structural discrimination against non-Farsi peoples and to give voice to their pain and suffering in a society where Farsi is the only official and teachable language.
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Sevil Suleymani |
Explaining the motivation behind starting the campaign, she said:
"I started first grade in Parsabad Moghan in a class of 35 students, none of whom knew Farsi. Our first-grade teacher was a young woman from Tabriz who had just graduated from a teacher-training college. She came to implement what she had learned—teaching in Farsi—but assumed we could all speak fluent Farsi, which was far from true. On the first days, she raised and lowered her ruler threateningly. When she called my name, I was so scared that I wet myself because I didn’t know a single word of Farsi."
Sevil Suleymani, who is now pursuing a PhD in sociology at a university in Virginia, continued:
"A few years ago, I shared a similar story on Facebook, which resonated widely. My post was shared multiple times by people from various ethnic groups such as Kurds, Lors, Baluchis, and Arabs. I received many messages saying how familiar my experience felt to them. They, too, had endured similar fears on their first day of school because Farsi wasn’t their first language."
Commenting on Iran’s education system, which recognizes only the Farsi language, she added:
"The Iranian educational system is not designed for language instruction. It assumes that all children already know Farsi and is only aimed at teaching literacy. But at least 50% of the students have no understanding of Farsi when they start school."
What Stories Have Been Shared Under the #MeAndFarsi Hashtag?
The accounts shared by non-Farsi citizens, regardless of which corner of Iran they hail from, are deeply painful. These individuals speak of experiences of humiliation and ridicule, the imposition of ethnic and gender stereotypes, and even discrimination within the education system simply because Farsi is not their first language.
Behrouz Boochani, a renowned Kurdish author currently teaching in exile at the University of Sydney, wrote on Twitter about the campaign and the hashtag #MeAndFarsi:
"#MeAndFarsi is one of the most significant cultural events in public discourse. Within hours, hundreds of painful stories and memories of humiliation, insult, and racist behavior towards Gilaks, Turks, Arabs, and others were documented. If you want to see the real Iran, follow this hashtag."
Another user, Tara, tweeted:
"When I started elementary school in Tabriz, I didn’t know any Farsi! I was good at math and science, but not in dictation, composition, or Farsi. In fourth grade, I failed composition. Even though I now have a PhD and teach at a university in the US, I still carry the negative effects of those school years with me."
A user named Barish shared a bitter experience of racism during his military service:
"During military service in the city of Baneh, when I entered the barracks, someone asked me where I was from. When I said Tabriz, another person from the top bunk said loudly, 'Guys, quiet down! I want to sing you a Turkish song,' and then put his hands to his mouth and brayed like a donkey. I responded, and this earned me three months of additional service and exile."
According to Sevil Suleymani, the common thread in all these stories is systemic and structural racism in Iran.
She elaborated:
"All these accounts reveal traces of systematic humiliation and discrimination against non-Farsi peoples. This shows how serious the issue of racism is in Iran. People haven’t been educated to understand that making a joke about an ethnic group isn’t just a simple joke—it reinforces a structure of discrimination."
Suleymani further added:
"These documented narratives show how ineffective Iran’s political and administrative systems are, as they fail to address the needs of over 50% of its population. Instead, one group has made life miserable for the rest."