Hamid Melikoglu, Voice of America, December 10, 2023
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| A bazaar in Tehran, the capital of Iran. |
Business owners in Tehran are prohibited from giving their establishments names in the languages of ethnic groups in the country.
Colonel Nadir Moradi, the head of the Tehran police overseeing public spaces, provided this information to the media, stating that "local names for businesses, including those in Turkish, Kurdish, Lur, Northern languages, etc., are prohibited and are contrary to the law."
According to the Tehran police official, names in ethnic languages can only be used in other provinces, and using non-Persian names in the capital is illegal.
"For example, Turkish names can be used in Turkish-speaking provinces, and I emphasize again that according to the directive, the use of such names for businesses in the capital is prohibited," the police official explained.Moradi added that the police are acting by the directive. He further explained that if Tehran residents apply for business permits and choose a non-Persian name, their application will not be approved.
He referred to non-Persian names related to the languages of ethnic minorities in Iran as "forbidden names" and stated that if some store or business owners install signs without obtaining permission from the police, the police will intervene within the legal framework.
No ethnic census is generally conducted in Iran, and there are no official statistics on this matter. While Iranian officials acknowledge that many Azerbaijani Turks live in Tehran, there are no exact or official statistics on the number of Turks in the capital.
Nevertheless, banning ethnic minority language names for businesses is often considered a violation of fundamental human rights, such as freedom of expression and cultural rights.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Tehranda iş yerlərinə qeyri-fars adların qoyulması qadağan edilib