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Editor’s note: This statement was originally issued in 2020. Zara Mohammadi’s initial 10-year prison sentence was subsequently reduced to five years on appeal. She began serving the sentence in January 2022 and was released from Sanandaj prison on 10 February 2023.
On July 14, 2020, an Islamic Revolutionary Court in Iran sentenced Zara Mohammadi to 10 years in prison for voluntarily teaching the Kurdish language. Zara Mohammadi is a co-founder of the Nojin Cultural Association, a civil society organisation focused on social and educational initiatives, including the teaching of Kurdish language and literature.
The Islamic Revolutionary Court’s verdict suggests that Zara Mohammadi’s Kurdish-language instruction threatened Iran’s “national security.” It is worth noting that the Revolutionary Courts are not constitutional. According to Article 61 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, “the judiciary power is exercised by the Public Courts of Justice [dādgostarī] ….”
Moreover, while Iran’s constitution explicitly privileges Persian as the country’s official language and the language of education, thereby marginalising other languages spoken in Iran as “tribal” and “local,” it does allow the teaching of non-Persian languages under Article 15. Despite this clear stipulation regarding the legality of using non-Persian languages, over the past 40 years the Islamic Republic of Iran has refrained from implementing Article 15 and has consistently treated non-Persian languages as threats to Iran’s national security. The Revolutionary Court’s ruling against Zara Mohammadi is therefore another instance of the Islamic Republic’s securitisation of the promotion of non-Persian languages, even by private individuals.
To make matters worse, in 2019, the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Education declared that a lack of Persian proficiency among preschool pupils would be categorised as “abnormal” and treated with special measures. The Iranian state has thus pathologised a lack of Persian proficiency, turning it into a biological issue for non-Persian-speaking preschoolers.
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s clear and systematic discrimination against non-Persian languages is in violation of several international conventions and covenants, including the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Iran is a signatory.
We, the undersigned, condemn the Islamic Revolutionary Court’s unlawful verdict, call for the immediate acquittal of Zara Mohammadi, and demand an end to discriminatory policies against non-Persian languages in Iran.
