Azeris in Iran - no language problem really

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is an organisation dedicated to reporting the news in 21 countries where a free press is banned by the government or has yet to be fully established. They started 60 years ago by dropping balloons into Communist Eastern Europe, and now broadcast in 28 languages in Europe and Asia.

On their website today is a commentary from Iran, where millions of ethnic Azeris are unable to receive an education in their native tongue. Surprisingly, the journalist who compiled the report says that he found little evidence that the Azeri community in Iran were particularly perturbed by this, many stating that it would weaken their acquisition of the Persian language. Because Iranian censuses don't include information about foreign languages, it is difficult to determine the number of Azeri speakers in the country, although there are four Azeri provinces whose population totals about 10 million. These people mainly speak Azeri Turkish, heavily influenced by the local Persian tongue, as you'd expect, especially written communications.

Before 1925 there was no official language in Iran, with Persian the language of government and literature, Arabic the language of religion, and Azeri Turkish spoken in the court of the Shah and among Iranian Azeris. In 1925 Reza Shah Pahlavi imposed Persian as the country's official language, banning all others from official use and from education. In 1979 there was the Islamic Revolution, when the new government introduced an article into the constitution confirming that the "official and educational language is Persian, but the languages of other ethnic groups may also be used". However, this article has never been put into practice.

The reasons why the Iranian Azeris are not particularly exercised by this apparent injustice are partly because they have largely adapted to the situation, and partly because, as an ethnic group, they do not feel particularly discriminated against, sharing their Shi'ite religion with the Persian majority. However, because they do not speak Persian as a native language, they do have difficulties in both education and social standing. This may change if liberalisation in Iran continues to increase.