By Shahrve Mehrnami - Iranwire - February 20, 2024
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| The Iranian Turk Women’s Center hosted a conference in Germany titled “Linguistic Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities.” |
Around 40% of Iran’s population does not speak Persian as their first language. Their mother tongue is one of Iran’s many non-Persian languages. However, from the age of seven, when they enter primary school, they are forced to learn all academic subjects in Persian. This creates a divide between their home and school lives. Experts argue that the pressure to teach in a dominant language and the avoidance of teaching or honoring minority languages harm the cultural diversity of countries like Iran. Recognizing this issue as a global concern, UNESCO designated February 21 as "International Mother Language Day" to support linguistic and cultural diversity.
This year, the Iranian Turk Women’s Center hosted a conference titled “Linguistic Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities” in Cologne, Germany, to mark the occasion. The event featured speeches by activists and researchers, including Amir Kalan, Negar Golkar, Jaleh Tabrizi, Karina Jahani, Behrouz Shojaei, Melika Zar, Reza Moridi, Hassan Afras, Shima Silavi, and Omid Aqdami.
The Extinction of a Language Means the Death of a Culture
One reason for honoring mother tongues is the concern that dominant languages can marginalize minority languages, leading to their eventual disappearance. This phenomenon results in the loss of a cultural memory in those geographical regions. UNESCO estimates that around 7,000 languages exist globally, but half of them will vanish within the next century.
According to the Atlas of World Languages, over 20 languages in Iran face the threat of extinction. UNESCO has identified about 25 languages in Iran as endangered. These include Ashtiani, Bashkardi, Judeo-Persian, Jidi, Gazi, Gorani, Khalaj, Khorasani Turkic, Khunsari, Kereshi dialect, Achomi, Mandaic, Natanz, Naeini, Semnani, Senaya, Sivandi, Sui, Talysh, Tati, Vafsi dialect, Zoroastrian Dari (Behdinan dialect), Lishan Didan, and Houleoula.
Civil activist Sevil Soleymani, a Turk, told IranWire that language death occurs when a language loses its native speakers. She explained:
"The simplest consequence of language death is the breakdown of interethnic discourse, meaning there’s no communication between groups or generations. In some cases, grandchildren can no longer communicate with their grandparents, understand their stories, or read the writings of that language and culture. This is already happening in many parts of Iran, and individuals are sharing these experiences on social media. These individuals can no longer access the cultural knowledge of previous generations. The death of a language means the death of a culture, and losing those roots is a tragedy."
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| Sevil Suleymani |
Using Mother Tongues in Education Is a Human Right
The importance of mother tongues isn’t limited to cultural preservation; it also involves protecting the basic rights of those who speak them.
For millions of students who speak a non-Persian language at home, starting school in the fall is one of the most challenging experiences of their lives. Many recall their first and second years of primary school as bitter times that shattered their confidence for years.
Amir Kalan, a professor of multilingual education at McGill University, told IranWire that incorporating mother tongues into education systems is a fundamental human right. According to him, every student has the right to learn in their mother tongue at school.
He outlined the benefits of including mother tongues in schools, highlighting not only its psychological and developmental impacts but also its role in fostering identity. Kalan explained:
"One type of identity is academic identity. Allowing students to learn in their mother tongue helps them see their academic potential and succeed in the educational system. A monolingual education system sends daily messages to six- and seven-year-old children that the language they use at home has no academic or scientific value."
Monolingual schools, he argues, systematically suppress the academic identity of minority children. Research shows that children who are taught in a language other than their mother tongue are set up for failure. Dropout rates in non-Persian-speaking regions are incomparably higher than in Persian-speaking areas. In practice, monolingual education systems engage in a form of academic torture, conveying to children forced to abandon their mother tongue in school that they lack the capacity for academic achievement.
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| Amir Kalan |
Kalan sees some of the destructive consequences of banning mother tongues in Iranian schools as targeting ethnic identity. He believes that when a dominant language is forcibly taught in diverse regions, it sends a message to minority groups that their culture lacks the capacity for academic success. He added:
"Monolingual, centralized education systems become tools of cultural suppression. Public schools, which are supposed to help underprivileged regions and serve as a lifeline, often turn into machines of cultural oppression. As a result, the cultural identity of the region is endangered."
This happens despite evidence suggesting that governments seeking to promote fluency in a dominant language—such as Persian—can achieve better results by first allowing students to fully learn their own languages. When children learn in their mother tongue and embrace their academic identity, they can more easily engage with other cultures without viewing them as adversaries.
According to Kalan, incorporating mother tongues into education requires consideration of a country's educational resources and socio-cultural and political conditions. However, he emphasizes that introducing mother tongues into elementary education is essential. Research shows that children who speak a non-Persian language at home should be taught in their mother tongue during the early years of primary school and then transition to the dominant language by third or fourth grade.
The Deep Impact of Separation from Native Language and Culture
In addition to all the negative effects of removing native languages from the education system, the emotional and psychological damage often remains with individuals throughout their lives.
According to Sara Afrasiabi, a psychologist, native language and its acquisition have a significant impact on a child's cognitive, emotional, and social development. In fact, the native language is a prerequisite for a child's emotional and mental growth.
Afrasiabi told IranWire:
“The general and specialized recommendation to everyone caring for children is to communicate with them using a maternal language rather than a commanding one. The cognitive, emotional, and neural development of a child in their early years—up until the end of elementary school—depends on their native language.
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| Sara Afrasiabi |
A child's initial understanding of themselves and the world around them is built on the foundation of their native language. Similarly, their first emotional and cognitive experiences of the world are expressed in their native language. For this reason, psychologists believe that the foundational structures of any individual’s mind are formed with the linguistic materials of their mother tongue and, secondarily, the family environment in which the child is raised.”
People prefer to shape their deepest emotions, feelings, and perceptions in their native language. Afrasiabi notes that for individuals, the best songs, lullabies, laments, and moral teachings are often those conveyed in their native language. Consequently, those unable to speak, write, or express themselves in their native tongue frequently regret not being able to fully embrace it.
This psychologist also believes that a child uses their native language to connect with their parents, family, close relatives, culture, history, identity, and religion. The native language ties the child to the culture of the society they come from and in which their identity is formed. A child who does not know their native language is deprived of the most valuable tool for cultural upbringing.
Afrasiabi emphasized:
“Neglect—whether intentional or unintentional, official or unofficial—by families or governments in creating opportunities for children to grow with their native language is a grave injustice against the child, culture, and society. Ignoring the native language of children and imposing a single language as the national language weakens individual, ethnic, and national identities. Furthermore, the native language serves as a foundation for learning other languages.”
Linguistic Diversity as a Cultural Treasure
Although Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution states that “use of local and ethnic languages in the press, mass media, and for teaching their literature in schools, alongside Persian, is permitted,” the government has thus far deprived speakers of non-Persian languages of even this minimal right.
Experts believe this not only harms students emotionally and psychologically but also pushes these languages toward eventual extinction over the long term.
Amir Kalan, a professor of multilingual education, told IranWire that one of the consequences of language extinction is the destruction of the cultures tied to those languages, which were a significant part of the region’s history. To illustrate the scale of this loss, he used the example of the environment:
“Just as a healthy environment requires diverse species of plants and animals, for the cultural geography of a place like the Iranian plateau to remain intact, all the languages that have traditionally existed in that geography are necessary. Therefore, all these languages must continue to thrive in this region. Depriving students of the opportunity to learn in their native language not only limits their access to numerous benefits but also poses a collective threat by pressuring the linguistic ecosystem of the area, ultimately leading to the collapse of its cultural ecology.”
Sevil Soleymani, a Turkish civil rights activist, believes that this process leads to the destruction of cultural heritage. According to her, most developed countries view diverse languages and cultures as treasures and part of their cultural heritage. In contrast, no effort is made in Iran to preserve these languages and cultures. She explained that protecting diverse languages is not solely the responsibility of individuals or families but requires government support. Government institutions with the budget and resources to safeguard these languages must take on this responsibility.
Link to the original article in Farsi on IranWire: https://iranwire.com/fa/features/125570