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| Semed Purmusevi |
Recently, under the directive of Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Friday prayer leaders in various cities delivered sermons commemorating "Ferdowsi Memorial Day and Persian Language Preservation Day," symbols of Iranian nationalism.
Some political activists have suggested that nationalist forces are becoming stronger within the Iranian government. However, political activist and researcher Samad Pourmusavi, in an interview with Voice of America, argues that Shia Islam and nationalism have always been intertwined within the structure of the Iranian state.
He states that Friday prayers serve as a means to communicate the Supreme Leader’s policies to the public:
“Through Friday prayer sermons, they aim to directly convey the policies of the leadership or government to the people. As they describe it, the values and policies of the revolution are taught directly to the masses, while sermons on current events and special days are dictated from above.”
Pourmusavi points out that Friday prayer leaders have previously discussed Persian language issues, noting:
“This is not the first time that Friday prayer leaders have spoken about the Persian language. For example, in 2019, the Friday Imam of Urmia, in a sermon, claimed that Islam owes a debt to the Persian language. We have seen Friday Imams declare Persian to be the language of paradise and, conversely, liken the Turkish language to the language of hell... However, it is true that as Persian language institutions have grown stronger and their budgets have increased, the issue of the Persian language has gained more prominence recently.”
Pourmusavi emphasizes that the Iranian state structure is fundamentally based on both Shia Islam and the Persian language.
“These two are not opposed to each other. Some people, when looking at current issues, separate Iranian nationalism from Shiism and attribute this to Pan-Iranism, as if Iranian nationalism is unimportant to this system and the matter is seen as the infiltration of nationalist elements into the system. This leads people to focus their energy on combating Pan-Iranist forces or the Iran-Shahri ideology.
However, if we look at the historical context, both phenomena—religion and language—have been deeply interconnected. Since the establishment of the modern Iranian nation-state over the past century, when the idea of the Iranian nation was defined, both elements were central: one tied to linguistic identity and the other to religious identity. They are completely intertwined and are given historical legitimacy,” adds Samad Pourmusavi.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Səməd Purmusəvi: İran dövlət anlayışında şiəçilik və irançılıq iç-içədir