The Importance of Receiving Education in One’s Mother Tongue

Fakhteh Zamani - September 02, 2014

On the blackboard, it reads in Turkish: "Where is our mother tongue?"

The right to receiving education in one’s mother tongue is a civil right and a human right that is stressed in a number of international human rights documents and conventions such as Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, Convention on the Rights of the Child and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

Fakhteh Luna Zamani’s Speech on Minority Rights in Iran

14 March 2012 - In conjunction with the report of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran to the UN Human Rights Council, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and Minority Rights Group International (MRG) hosted a parallel event titled “Minority Rights in Iran.” The event took place in Geneva, Switzerland, and included contributions from minority and NGO representatives. Through this event, UNPO and MRG aimed to draw attention to the human rights situation of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities in Iran.

I would like to thank MRG and UNPO for supporting disadvantaged groups all over the world and organizing this event.

It has been an extraordinary year for the Middle East and the Arab world. Civil uprisings against corrupt regimes permeated nearly 20 countries, and these social movements have mesmerized the greater international community. Amidst the deposition of corrupt governments in one of the most volatile regions in the world, Iran’s government has remained in power. With that, its human rights record remains untouched, and the international community continues to be unaware of the status of Iran’s minorities.

I am here to address the issues facing one of these minorities: the Azerbaijani Turks living in Iran, whose fundamental human rights are consistently violated by the government of Iran.

Amnesty International intervews Fakhteh Zamani on Lake Urmia crisis

Iran: What Would Real Democracy Look Like?

Fakhteh Zamani's Speech in Italian Parliament

I would like to thank the UNPO and the Nonviolent Radical Party for organizing such a wonderful and needed conference. It has been my great pleasure and honor to listen to all the esteemed speakers—even those with whom I may not completely share the same views.

Our panel has been tasked with the tricky responsibility of sharing strategies for change and outlining the role of the international community in fostering democratic movements in Iran and its Diaspora. In this short address, I shall discuss the organization I represent, the challenges we face in the Iranian society, why the support of the international community is essential, and conclude with solutions for a better Iran.

Ethnic Turks of Iran's Azerbaijan and the cartoon crisis

Interview with Fakhteh Zamani, Chief Executive Officer and founder of the Association for the Defence of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran (ADAPP).

Iran – a nation of concealed minorities

Minority rights Group - 29 Jan 2010

All over the world, ordinary women, men, and children are fighting for the rights of their communities to be recognized. Fakhteh Zamani spoke to MRG about her work in support of Iran’s minorities.

A published expert in wireless communications, Canada-based Fakhteh Zamani is better known for her determination to remedy injustices suffered by Iran’s minorities. Fakhteh, an Iranian Azerbaijani, left Iran more than18 years ago but she remains passionate about her homeland and uses modern communications methods to gather and share information about minorities.

Fakhteh Zamani: Minority Forum Speech

Madam Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Forum Participants:

It is a well-known fact by now that education in the mother tongue is central to students' intellectual, emotional, spiritual and educational development. It is and should be an undeniable right of all ethnic groups to study, read and write in their natural mother language.

This right, however, has been denied to Iran’s non-Persian ethnic groups: i.e., Azerbaijani-Turks, Kurds, Baluchs, Turkmens, Arabs, Lurs, Gilaki-Mazandaranis, and others.

Interview with Fakhteh Zamani, Founder of ADAPP

Interview by Farzin Farzad, AP Peace Fellow - June 29, 2009

Interview with the Founder and President of the Association for the Defence of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran (ADAPP): Zamani discusses the ongoing electoral crisis and explores why Azerbaijan’s provinces in Iran have remained relatively quiet compared to Tehran.

Coop Radio's interview with Fakhteh Zamani

15th of June 2009, Reginald Angus Argue (pen name of Angus McLeod) had as guests Fakhteh Zamani & Pastor James David Manning. This was originally broadcast on CO-OP Radio (102.7 FM CFRO http://www.coopradio.org/ on the Internet) out of Vancouver British Columbia Canada on the radio show Monday Brown Bagger, which is heard from Noon to 1 pm PST. Fakhteh Zamani is the President Association for Defence of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran (ADAPP) out of Vancouver, Canada. The discussion was around Iran and how the Azerbaijan people have been treated within this nation, and other points surrounding Iran.

http://www.archive.org/details/MondayBrownBagger-June-15-2009

FAKHTEH ZAMANI's VOICE

Voices - 23 April 2009

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay invited individuals from various parts of the world to bore testimony to their experiences with racism in their countries. Fakhteh Zamani was one of the “Voices”

My name is Fakhteh Zamani, and I am the founder and current president of the Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran. For three years, I have traveled throughout North America and Europe to speak at various forums in hopes of raising awareness towards Iran's minority groups in their struggle for linguistic and cultural rights.

Despite receiving countless threats to halt my work, I have tried my absolute best to represent those who have fallen victim to human rights abuses and the families and friend who support them.

Interview with Fakhteh Zamani, Iranian Azerbaijani minority rights activist, UN, Geneva

English: Interview with Fakhteh Zamani, an Iranian Azerbaijan's Turkish minority rights activist - Human Rights Council, Forum on Minority Issues, United Nations, Geneva, 15-16 December 2008. Interview by Stefano Keller and Cesco Reale, representatives of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA) to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva. Esperanto: Okaze de la Forumo pri minoritatoj organizita de la Homrajta Konsilio ĉe UN en Ĝenevo, Cesco Reale kaj Stefano Keller intervjuas la aktivulinon Fakhteh Zamani, kiu luktas por la minoritataj rajtoj de la Azerbajĝana popolo en Irano kaj alilande.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Internat

Speech of Fakhteh Zamani

On March 24, 2009, Mrs. Fakhteh Zamani, President of the Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran and Mr. Ahmad Batebi, a spokesperson for Human Rights Activists in Iran gave a presentation to the Canadian parliament regarding the current status of human rights in Iran.

Mrs. Zamani opened the discussion with a brief presentation on treatment of Azerbaijanis as an ethnically marginalized minority that is barred from linguistic and cultural expression. Mrs. Zamani, who is herself of Iranian Azerbaijani descent, cited examples of the oppressive treatment by the Islamic Republic of Iran on ethnic Azerbaijanis simply for promoting linguistic rights. She mentioned the case of Reza Avaz-Pour, 17, who was sentenced to 15 months in a political prison for stating that his mother tongue would never die; 5 university activists in February 2009 who were charged with establishing illegal groups and disturbing national security after they campaigned to promote linguistic rights; and Mr. Farhad Mohseni, 25, who was tortured and killed in June 2008 for similar activities. 

Vancouver woman risks her life to expose the persecution of Azerbaijani Iranians

Tara Carman, Vancouver Sun - Jan 03, 2009

Then on May 12, 2006, the cockroach cartoon was published in an Iranian national newspaper and thousands of Azerbaijani Iranians took to the streets. The protesters, mostly unarmed, were brutally repressed by security forces. In a 2007 report on human rights in Iran, Amnesty International estimates that "hundreds, if not thousands, were arrested and scores were reportedly killed by the security forces."

There is a haunted look in Fakhteh Zamani's eyes as she recalls guiding Iranian activist Vahid Davarpanah through the streets of Turin, Italy. 

Speech of Fakhteh Zamani in U.S. Congress: Human Rights Abuses and Discrimination on Azerbaijani Turks in Iran

I am here to address the plight of Turks living in Iran, whose basic human rights have been consistently violated and whose voices have been silenced.

The Turks, with a population of over 20 million, make up the largest minority in Iran. They are located mainly in the North and Northwest of Iran. The Turkish language is also spoken in Northeast and Central Iran, as well as in the capital city of Tehran. All of these people live under the Iranian Islamic regime, with severe violations of their social, economic or political rights.