Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

for Human Rights in Iran

https://www.iranrights.org
Omid, a memorial in defense of human rights in Iran
One Person’s Story

Rahman Piroti

About

Age: 66
Nationality: Iran
Religion: Non-Believer
Civil Status: Married

Case

Date of Killing: September 8, 2018
Location of Killing: Koy-Sanjagk, Iraq
Mode of Killing: Extrajudicial Execution

About this Case

Mr. Piroti had met with Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Shariatmadari, and Abbas Amir Enteza in August-September of 1979 to discuss about the massacre in Kurdistan.

Information regarding the killing of Mr. Rahman Piroti (known as Mirza Rahman), son of Rassul and Ameneh, was obtained from an interview conducted by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center with a person close to Mr. Piroti (November 11, 2020, and March 20, 2021). News of this killing was also published on the Akamnews website (August 23, 2018), on the official website of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Kurdistan u Kurd (September 9, 2018), and on the Hengaw Human Rights Organization website (September 9, 2018). Additional information was obtained from the book “A Pragmatic Fighter: Remembering Rahman Piroti” (2020).

Additional information was obtained through interviews conducted by the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center with Mr. Kamal Karimi, member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (January 1, February 4, and March 2, 2021), Mr. Mansur Khosravi, member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (March 31, 2021), and Mr. Farzin Nadimi, research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (April 20, 2021). Additional information was obtained from the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s Charter, passed in its 16thCongress (February 2016), Reuters News Agency (July 21, 2018), Persian Deutsche Welle (July 10, 1nd 22, 2018), the official website of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Kurdistan u Kurd (February 16, 2016; September 7, 2016; September 8, 2018), ISNA News Agency (September 10, and 14, 2018), and other sources.*

Mr. Piroti was an ethnic Kurd, 66 years old, from the Lajan region in Piranshahr County located in West Azarbaijan Province. He was born in a reputable, well-known, and religious family in the Lajan region. Mr. Piroti dropped out of school in his senior year in high school due to poverty and financial problems and was not able to obtain his high school diploma. He was married, had five children, and did not hold any religious beliefs. (Boroumand Center interview, November 11, 2020).

Mr. Piroti was known as an energetic and intellectual person in his youth. He was a kind and honest individual who loved reading and was extremely serious and determined in the defense of his rights and those of others; he was adored by the people around him. (Boroumand Center interview, November 11, 2020).

According to a person close to Mr. Piroti, the killing of one of the leaders of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and an opponent of the Pahlavi regime in the late 1960’s, and the hard life led by the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party’s Peshmerga who had been stranded and displaced in Iranian Kurdistan in 1975-76, was what inspired and encouraged him to engage in political activities and struggles. (Boroumand Center interview, November 11, 2020).

According to available information, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan invited Mr. Piroti to work with and join the Party in 1977. He officially became a member of the Party in early 1978, and began his political activities by participating in protests and demonstrations against the Pahlavi regime, as well as through promoting nationalist sentiments among the people of the villages around Piranshahr. (Boroumand Center interview, November 11, 2020).

After the local military forces’ attack on the people of Naqadeh on April 20, 1979, and the mass murder of the population of the villages of Qarena, Qalatan, Sarvekani, and Sufian in the summer of 1979, Mr. Piroti and a number of other well-known personalities and dignitaries of the Mokrian region, including the counties of Mahabad and Piranshahr, met with Ayatollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Shariatmadari, and Abbas Amir Enteza, the Interim Government’s spokesman in August-September of 1979. As representatives of the region’s farmers and general population, Mr. Piroti and the others’ objective was to inform the regime’s highest officials of these killings and prevent further attacks. (The book “A Pragmatic Fighter”; Boroumand Center interview, March 20, 2021).

Mr. Piroti began his activities as a Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Peshmerga in April-May 1979, and was appointed deputy commander of a group of the Democratic Party Peshmerga called “Avareh” (“Displaced” or “wandering”) because of his military capabilities. As a military commander, he played an active role in the Party’s military operations in certain regions of western Iran until spring of 1980. (The book “A Pragmatic Fighter”; Boroumand Center interview, November 11, 2020).

After the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s 4thCongress, a number of high-ranking military commanders split from the Party on June 10, 1980, and founded the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Mr. Piroti, who had split from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan at the same time as these individuals, joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party in April-May 1981, but separated from the Party after less than a year due to disagreements with the Party’s policies, and stopped partisan and political activities for a while, and went to live in Iraqi Kurdistan. (Boroumand Center interview, March 20, 2021).

Starting in early 1983, Mr. Piroti’s views regarding Kurdish parties’ armed struggle and activities underwent a change. In subsequent years, his belief was that armed struggle is extremely costly for Kurdish parties and forces, and that these parties do not have the capability to fight the Iranian regime’s military forces on their own. Aside from the first years of his political and party activities, Mr. Piroti was always a proponent of civil activities and struggles, and refraining any type of violence. He believed that Kurdish parties were forced to carry weapons in order to defend themselves. In 1984-85, Mr. Piroti intended to join the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan once again but was not able to. He returned to Piranshahr that same year and was arrested and detained in that city for seven months. After his release, he went to [the city of] Orumieh with his family because of the security forces’ constant harassment and pressure, lived there for two years, and engaged in business activities. He spent most of his time reading and connecting with various strata of the Kurdish society in Orumieh in order to raise awareness about Kurdish nationalism and “to neutralize the central government’s propaganda regarding the Kurdish nation and Kurdish nationalism”. He returned to Piranshahr in 1988, and unofficially re-established contacts with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan that same year. In 1994-95, Mr. Piroti engaged in efforts to establish contact between Kurdish elite, teachers, college students, and college professors in the cities of Tehran and Tabriz, and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan. Mr. Piroti was summoned and arrested several times up until 2007-08, and was harassed and pressured when one of his sons was arrested and armed security forces attacked and searched his home, his person, and his family at night. (Boroumand Center interview, November 11, 2020, and March 20, 2021).

According to a person with knowledge of the case, in June 2007, Mr. Piroti learned through his friends that security forces intended to arrest him again and there was a chance that a death sentence could be issued against him. He subsequently migrated to [the city of] Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan where his family joined him a year later. Mr. Piroti believed that the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s [policies] were closer to his thinking and political beliefs, and that there was a higher capacity for change in its structure, organization, and management (compared to the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan), and therefore, following the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s invitation, he participated in the Party’s 14thCongress in March-April 2008. He was elected member of the Organization Committee at the Congress, and subsequently at the Party’s 15thCongress in June 2011, he was elected Deputy of the Organization Commission. At the Party’s 16thCongress in January-February 2016, he was elected member of the Education Commission. During this period, Mr. Piroti concentrated more on the Party’s organizational and educational aspects as well as on writing educational materials for the Party’s Education Center. Mr. Piroti played a key role in starting the “Tishak-e No” publication as its editor-in-chief, the content of which was geared toward encouraging civil activities and struggles; the publication was published by the Kurdistan Democratic Party. (Boroumand Center interview, November 11, 2020, and March 20, 2021; the book “A Pragmatic Fighter”).

According to a person who knew Mr. Piroti, in 2008, an ethnic Kurd affiliated with the Information Administration, proposed Mr. Piroti’s assassination on Iraqi Kurdistan soil to said Administration. The Information Administration provided this individual with money and weapons but he was not successful in carrying out the assassination. (Boroumand Center interview, March 20, 2021).

According to available information, in 2014-15, Mr. Piroti’s home in Piranshahr where one of his sons lived with his family was shot at [from the outside], resulting in the breaking of the windows. A complaint and subsequent follow-ups at the Judiciary and before various judicial authorities bore no fruit. (Boroumand Center interview, November 11, 2020, and March 20, 2021).

According to the person who knew Mr. Piroti, he was not afraid of being assassinated and considered threats and efforts to assassinate him as part of his political life, and refused to carry a weapon to defend himself. (Boroumand Center interview, March 20, 2021).

He was not afraid of being assassinated and considered threats and efforts to assassinate him as part of his political life.

The Kurdish Problem in the Islamic Republic

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the disagreements between the government of the Shiite Islamic Republic and the organizations in the Kurdish regions of western Iran regarding the rights and roles of minorities in drafting the Constitution; whether the government should be secular or religious, and especially the issue of Kurdish autonomy; and conflicts that resulted in Kurdish political organizations boycotting the April 1979 Referendum on instituting an Islamic Republic; led to serious, and at times armed, clashes between the central government and the Peshmerga (Kurdistan Democratic Party’s armed forces).

On August 19, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini labeled the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the oldest and most influential Kurdish Party, “the Party of the Devil”, and declared it “unofficial and illegal”, and ordered a military attack on Kurdistan. Mass executions and intense armed clashes continued in the region for months, clashes that resulted in the deaths of a number of civilians and the displacement and relocation of the residents of certain towns. In the next four years, Kurdish parties lost their grip on power in the region to a great extent, and relocated to Iraqi Kurdistan. Since then, a number of their leaders and members have been assassinated outside Iran, especially in Iraqi Kurdistan.

In the years since the Islamic Republic has been in existence, in addition to such entities as the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, Komala (Revolutionary Organization of the Toilers of Iranian Kurdistan), the Koran School led by Ahmad Moftizadeh, Organization of Iranian Kurdistan Struggle (which was active in the early years of the Revolution), certain other Kurdish opposition parties were established outside Iran, such as the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK). These parties, with policies and ideologies that are not necessarily similar and uniform, have settled in parts of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in Iraq, such as Koy, Soleimanieh, and in the foothills of Qandil mountains. Some of these parties have undergone splits in recent years. These conflicts have been more about the methods of running the organizations rather than theoretical and ideological differences. These parties have not controlled any part of the Iranian territory since the late 1980’s, and have adopted different strategies in different periods in order to confront the Islamic Republic, advance their political objectives, and recruit members.

Beginning in 2006, the conflicts between the regime and Kurdish parties – who had increased their presence in Iran in reaction to the government intensifying the detention and execution of Kurdish activists and the spread of fundamentalist beliefs in Kurdish regions – entered a new and more serious phase. Kurdish forces, especially the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the PJAK, were attacked several times inside Iran and in Iraqi Kurdistan border regions by border patrol forces and the revolutionary Guards. That same year, Revolutionary Guards conducted armed attacks against the positions of Iranian Kurdish parties inside the borders of the Kurdish Autonomous Region in Iraq. The bombing of the Night of Yalda ceremonies (an ancient celebration of the longest night of the year) in 2006, which was also Abdorrahman Qassemlu’s birthday, resulted in the death of five Party members and 2 members of the Iraqi Kurdistan security forces. Kurdish forces also attacked Islamic Republic forces on several occasions. At least dozens were killed on each side in these military clashes.**

In subsequent years, particularly in 2017 and 2018, the clashes continued with less frequency and intensity. The most important of these clashes was the attack by PJAK forces on a border post on July 21, 2018, which resulted in 11 deaths. (Deutsche Welle, July 22, 2018; Reuters, July 21, 2018). On September 8 of that same year, the seat of the Kurdistan Democratic Party – a party that opposed armed struggle and had not participated in the clashes with the Islamic Republic forces – located in Koy in Iraqi Kurdistan, was the target of a rocket attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards in which 16 people were killed and 50 injured. (ISNA News Agency, September 14, 2018; Kurdistan u Kurd website (September 8, 2018).

Background on the Formation of the Kurdistan Democratic Party

Following internal conflicts within the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan – established in 1945 with the aim of autonomy for Kurdistan in northwestern Iran – the Party went through a shakeup in 2006 and was split into two separate organizations, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK). The PDK seeks “the establishment of a Kurdistan Republic within the framework of a federal Iran”. (Charter of the PDK, passed in its 16thCongress in February 2016). This party has not ruled out armed struggle; it has, however, prioritized political struggle and the expression of the people of Kurdistan’s demands through elections and other civil activities within the framework of existing domestic laws in order to achieve their goals. (The official website of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Kurdistan u Kurd, February 16, 2016).

The PDK has demanded the implementation of, and even negotiation over, Principles 15*** and 19**** of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic that deals with the rights of ethnic and religious minorities. In 2016-17, Party officials met with Iran’s National Security High Council officials in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. On February 15, 2016, in the Concluding Declaration of its 16thCongress, the Party emphasized “rendering the struggle and the activities more robust, both inside and outside the country, and strengthening the nationalist discourse as well as the spirit of unity and solidarity in Iranian Kurdistan in all areas and contexts” through “utilization of all means and methods of struggle for the purpose of universalizing the nationalist discourse in Iranian Kurdistan, relying on unity and solidarity”. (Boroumand Center interview, February 4, 2021; Giarang, January 3, 2019; Deutsche Welle, July 10, 2019; the official website of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Kurdistan u Kurd, February 16, 2016).

Threats Made Against Mr. Piroti and His Death

On September 8, 2018, Mr. Rahman Piroti was killed in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ rocket attack on the location where a meeting of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s Central Committee was being held in the town of Koy Sanjaq, located in Iraq’s Erbil Province.

At 10:45 in the morning of September 8, 2018, the political offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK) located in a building known as the Democratic Qala (“Fort”) in Koy Sanjaq, a town 66 kilometers (41 miles) from the Iran-Iraq border, was the target of a rocket attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The structure, which is 700 meters (765 yards) long and 200 meters (218 yards) wide, is comprised of 100 rooms on two levels and a basement, where all of the Party’s various sections are located, that is, the political and military sections, other sections related to women, children, and youth issues, the Party’s radio and television, as well as the sleeping and living quarters of the single members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s Peshmerga. Married Peshmerga and their families live one kilometer from this structure. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s offices and buildings, including the Party’s training and education center is also approximately one kilometer to the east of this structure. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s training and education center is the closest building to the Qala. Party ceremonies used to be conducted in this building prior to the attack. The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s political and military training headquarters were also targeted. (Boroumand Center interview, March 31, 2021).

According to the Revolutionary Guards and local eyewitnesses, seven ground to ground precision missiles were fired, three of which hit the PDK headquarters, and two hit the ground close to the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s training center. As a result, 14 PDK members and 2 PDKI members were killed, and 50 were wounded, a number of whom were women and children. (Boroumand Center interview, January 1, 2021; official website of the Kurdistan Democratic Party; Holy Defense News Agency, September 9, 2018).

In an interview with Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Farzin Nadimi, research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, stated: “Based on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ claims, the technology used in the Fateh 110 missile used in the attack against the Kurdistan Democratic Party headquarters probably had a high level of precision.” According to Mr. Nadimi, one cannot opine on why the other two missiles did not hit a specific target, and it is not clear whether these rockets were supposed to hit the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s headquarters or the seat of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan. (Boroumand Center interview, April 20, 2021).

After the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ rocket attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s headquarters and the execution of three Kurdish political prisoners, Zanyar Moradi, Loqman Moradi, and Ramin Hosseinpanahi, Kurdish civil and political activists and Kurdish parties, including the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan, the Iranian Kurdistan Struggle, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party issued a call for a nationwide strike on September 8, 2018. Following this call, business owners in bazars of various towns in Kurdistan, Western Azarbaijan, and Kermanshah Provinces shut down their stores on September 12, 2018. (Deutsche Welle, September 12, 2018).

Iranian Officials’ Reaction

News of the September 8 rocket attack was initially published by semi-official media close to military institutions. A day later, on September 9, 2021, the Revolutionary Guards Corps issued an announcement in which it accepted responsibility for the rocket attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party camp, stating that the reason for the attack was “the leaders of these groups’ defiance and inattention to serious warnings issued by the Iraqi Kurdistan Autonomous Region’s officials emphasizing the Islamic Republic’s determination to remove their bases, and the necessity for putting an end to their mischief, aggression, and invasive and terrorist activities against Islamic Iran”. (Holy Defense News Agency, September 9, 2018). Bahram Qassemi, then-spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry declared that the attack was a response to the July 21, 2018 attack on the border post that had resulted in the death of several border patrolmen. (Mehr News Agency, September 10, 2018). On July 21, 2018, however, Reuters New Agency had quoted Hossein Khosheqbal, Kurdistan Province’s Deputy Governor for Political [Affairs], as attributing the attack on the border post to the PJAK. In an interview with Fars News Agency, Mohammad Hossein Rajabi, commander of Kurdistan’s Shahid Shahramfar Provincial Military Base had also stated on September 8, 2018, that is, one day after the attack on Kurdish parties in Iraq, that the killing of 6 PJAK members [on September 7, 2018] by the Revolutionary Guards local forces in “a pursuit operation named after the great Heidar Karrar” was in response to the attack on the border post and the killing of “11 indigenous Guards”. (Fars News Agency, September 8, 2018; Reuters, July 21, 2018).

Confirming Iran’s rocket attack, Ali Shamkhani, National Security High Council’s Secretary, stated that it was a response to “activities that jeopardized [national] security”. (ISNA News Agency, September 10, 2018). Furthermore, Major-General Mohammad Baqeri, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces asked the Iraqi Government and the government of Iraqi Kurdistan Autonomous Region to either turn over the members of that Party and of other parties opposed to Iran, or expel them from their territory. (ISNA News Agency, September 14, 2018).

The Kurdistan Democratic Party’s Reaction

In an interview with the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Kamal Karimi, member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s political office stated that the Party had not conducted any military operations inside Iran since the split in 2006, and that the dispatch of the Peshmerga inside Iran was in order to conduct propaganda and promotion activities. (Boroumand Center interview, February 4, 2021). Hengaw Human Rights Organization’s 2016 report (the timeframe of the research conducted), which records military activities between Kurdish parties and the Iranian regime’s military forces, does not contain any form of clashes between the members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party with the Islamic Republic’s military and security forces. The Kurdistan u Kurd website, the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s news arm, reported the killing of two of its members on September 6, 2016, that had been in Iran in order to carry out “political activities” and had been trapped in an “explosive net”. (Kurdistan u Kurd website, September 7, 2016).

The Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan reacted to the Islamic republic’s missile attack in separate announcements. The Kurdistan Democratic Party’s political office condemned the Revolutionary Guards’ missile attack on the Party’s bases, and asked political groups, activists, international organizations and institutions, and the world public opinion to condemn the attack. In its announcement, the Party emphasized that the location where the missiles had hit were the Party’s offices and civic centers. (Kurdistan Democratic Party’s website, September 8, 2018). According to Kamal Karimi, the 2018 attack on a border post in [the town of] Marivan, which was the pretext for the missile attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s offices, had been carried out by the PJAK and the latter had officially accepted responsibility for that attack. (Boroumand Center interview, March 2, 2021; Radio France, July 21, 2018).

According to available information, the Kurdistan Democratic Party has continued negotiations with the Islamic Republic after the missile attack. The Party and three other Kurdish political groups were in direct negotiations with the Islamic Republic in July 2019, with a Norwegian non-governmental organization as intermediary. However, in an interview with the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Kamal Karimi, member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s political office, stated that these negotiations have been halted for now. (Deutsche Welle, July 8, 2019; Boroumand Center interview, February 4, 2021).

Reaction of the Governments of Iraq and the Kurdistan Autonomous Region of Iraq

On Sunday, September 9, 2018, the Iraqi government condemned the missile attack on the bases of two opposition Kurdish parties by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and called it a “violation of its sovereignty”. Ahmad Mahjub, Iraq Foreign Ministry’s spokesman stressed: “Iraq wishes to [maintain] the security of its neighboring countries, and is opposed to any use of its territory for the purpose of endangering the security of these nations. Therefore, Baghdad strongly refutes any breach of its sovereignty caused by bombing any targets inside Iraqi territory without first obtaining the prior consent of Iraqi authorities.” The government of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region also issued a statement in which it condemned the Revolutionary Guards Corps’ aerial attack on the democratic parties’ offices and asked the Islamic Republic and the Iranian Kurdish parties settled in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region not to turn the Region into a conflict and competition zone. The Iraqi President Foad Massum expressed his concern and sorrow and stated that Iran’s attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s camp and offices in the town of Koy constituted an extensive breach of the country’s security. (Radio Farda, September 9, 2018; Kurdistan 24, September 9, 2018; ISNA News Agency, September 10 and 14, 2018).

Impacts on Family

According to a person with knowledge of the case, the members of Mr. Piroti’s family, his wife in particular, developed severe mental [and emotional] problems after his assassination. Mr. Piroti’s family have tried to alleviate the pain and sadness of losing him but were not able to reduce the negative effects of his murder on their psyche. The family constantly goes to his gravesite. (Boroumand Center interview, March 20, 2021).

After Mr. Piroti’s assassination, Piranshahr Information Administration summoned two of his children and threatened them “not to continue Mr. Piroti’s path” and “the Islamic Republic would then look kindly upon them”. (Boroumand Center interview, March 20, 2021).

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* Holy Defense News Agency (September 9, 2018); Fars News Agency (September 8, 2018); Hengaw Human Rights Organizations Annual Report (2016); Radio France (July 21, 2018); Radio Farda (September 9, 2018); Kurdistan 24 website (September 9, 2018); Ara News (April 20, and September 25, 2016, March 20, 2017); Giarang website (January 3, 2019); Mehr News Agency (September 10, 2018).
** For instance, the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) Peshmerga’s attack on the soldiers’ parade on April 17, 2016 (Ara News, April 19, 2016); the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan’s attack in Oshnuyeh on June 15, 2016, that resulted in the death of 6 Islamic Revolutionary Guardsmen (Rudaw, June 16, 2016); the attack by the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Peshmerga on a large Security location in the town of Piranshahr on September 24, 2016, following the arrest of dozens of Kurdish activists that resulted in more than 30 Islamic Revolutionary Guardsmen dead and dozens injured (Ara News, September 25, 2016); the attack by the “Eagles of Zagros” group in the town of Marivan in March 2017, that resulted in the death of at least two Islamic Revolutionary Guardsmen (Ara News, March 19, 2017).
*** Principle 15 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran: “The official language and script of Iran, the lingua franca of its people, is Persian. Official documents, correspondence, and texts, as well as text-books, must be in this language and script. However, the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian.”
**** Principle 19 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran:” All people of Iran, whatever the ethnic group or tribe to which they belong, enjoy equal rights; and color, race, language, and the like, do not bestow any privilege.”

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