Avshar Abbasi - August 26, 2026
Sometimes a word is more than just a word; it can mark a boundary between naming someone and judging them. Sometimes a word passes judgement on a person before they are even known.
When the deputy head for conservation and land affairs at Iran’s Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organisation uses the expression “He’s a Turk, after all” during a webinar, it is difficult to dismiss it as a mere slip of the tongue or a harmless joke. The expression draws on a stereotype that has circulated for years through jokes about Turks in Iran and has gradually become embedded in everyday language.
In this context, “He’s a Turk, after all” does more than name an ethnic identity; before a person can be seen as an individual in their own right, it places them within a collective, preconceived image. This is precisely where stereotyping begins: when presumed attributes of a group replace knowledge of a particular person.
