Politics

Iranian Kurds slam artist after saying he is ‘not a Kurd’

Ethnic Kurds took to social media this week to denounce the statements of a famous Iranian singer of Kurdish origin after he wrote in social media posts that he was "not a Kurd" and expressed further sentiments that online activists saw as anti-Kurdish.

Khrush Najari 2020/07/22 20:35

middle east Iran Tehran Culture Rojhilat Kermashan

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurds took to social media this week to denounce the statements of a famous Iranian singer of Kurdish origin after he wrote in social media posts that he was "not a Kurd" and expressed further sentiments that online activists saw as anti-Kurdish.

Sohrab Pournazeri, 37, was born to Kurdish parents in Kermanshah (Kermashan) province, located in a Kurdish-majority region of Iran. A famous musician and composer, he plays traditional bow stringed instruments such as the tar and kamancheh.

He is also the nephew of beloved vocalist Shahram Nazeri, previously condemned by Iranian officials for singing a Kurdish song that includes the line "I am from Kermanshah, I don't know Farsi," a sentiment promoting the Kurdish language and culture as native to the area.

"I am a Kord from Kermanshah, not a Kurd," the musician said, using the Persianized spelling of the word Kurd. Social media users who criticized Pournazeri saw his statement as tacit approval of Iran's policies against its Kurdish population.

He posted his claims on both Instagram—a popular media-sharing app—and Twitter, which is banned in Iran.

"I am proud of my roots," which he claimed are those of Khosraw Parviz, a Late Antiquity-era Persian king of the Sassanid Empire, which controlled much of the Middle East at its height including the Greater Kurdistan Region, which now spans multiple modern states.

Pournazeri then said that any "Kord" around the world, including Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, are "Iranians." A day later, he posted claims by western historians that describe the Kurdish languages as a branch of the Iranian languages.

"I am proud of the Kordish language, which is inherited from the Middle and Ancient Persian" languages, he said.

While academics debate the history and linguistic relations of different peoples throughout the Middle East in apparently value-neutral terms, public personalities at times cite research into the area to justify repressive state actions against minority groups.

As such, many on social media saw Pournazeri's claims as fundamentally political ones.

While many Persian-speaking social media users praised the musician's statements, Kurds roundly slammed his comments, with some referring to as a "jash," a pejorative term often used by Kurds to describe compatriots who betray the Kurdish cause.

Pournazeri then called on Kurds to come together against promoting "the separatist policies" of the US, England, and Israel, in remarks that ring similar to those of Iranian officials who claim that Iranian Kurdish opposition groups are backed by the country's regional and international foes.

"They have caused enough separation between us in the past few hundred years," he claimed, ending with, "Do not abandon Iran."

Some Kurds criticizing Pournazeri on Twitter used the hashtag "Exonerate Zara" for their comments, an online campaign slogan which protests a recent Iranian court ruling to sentence Kurdish language teacher Zara Mohammadi to ten years in prison for "national security offenses."

Although Kurdish culture, such as dress and music, is tolerated and the language is used in some publications, Iran's some 12 million Kurds continue to suffer deep-rooted discrimination. Kurdish is not taught in schools and Persian is the sole medium of instruction in primary and secondary education.

Pournazeri has not expressed support for Mohammadi nor Kurdish political activists on death row on his platforms but did participate a popular online campaign last Tuesday calling for a halt to the executions of three non-Kurdish Iranians convicted on rioting charges. A lawyer for the three men reportedly said that authorities had postponed the executions as a result of the campaign, while ethnic Kurds on death row continue to receive little attention in the media.

To some Kurdish Twitter users, Pournazeri's comments were seen as a lack of sympathy towards the minority group and their aspirations for equal human rights and political representation.

Sasan Amjadi, an independent Kurdish activist, said that the artist's statements are the symptoms of "being assimilated into the dominant culture" and being in denial. He added that the man's historical claims are "unfounded" and "denies the lived experience of tens of millions of people who suffered oppression."

"Pournazeri is not an exception, he is a product of long-standing forced assimilation policies in Kermanshah," claimed another social media user, Kaveh Kermanshahi, who is a Kurdish LGBTQ rights activist.

Idris Ahmedi, a researcher at Karlstad University in Sweden told Kurdistan 24 that Pournazeri most likely has been "coopted by Iranian authorities to counter the Kurdish national movement in Iranian Kurdistan, or Rojhelat, against the backdrop of social and political changes in Kurdish society for the past three decades."

"That the artist is from Kermashan, a Kurdish city where the population is predominantly Shiite, is significant. Following the revolution in 1979 and the establishment of the Shiite theocracy in Iran, the Shiite segments of Kurdish society did not take active part in the Kurdish national movement."

However, recently, "an increasing number of Kurds that are Shiite have come to the realization that institutionalized oppression targets the Kurds per se, irrespective of which religion or sect they belong to."

"Kurdish nationalism has therefore thrived in those parts of Rojhelat that have a Shiite population. Considering the potential of Kermashan, the Iranian state has been alarmed by these developments," he added.

According to expert Ahmedi, the Iranian government is in a state of heightened concern as a result of several current national crises.

"Popular discontent with corruption and mismanagement, periodic popular uprising, American sanctions and a reversal of the Islamic Republic's fortunes in the Middle East have all created a sense of insecurity on the part of the Islamic Republic."

"Iranian Kurdistan has traditionally been the site of ideological and political challenge to the Iranian state. His comments are essentially political and serve the interests of Persian nationalism at a time when the Islamic Republic faces internal and external challenges."

"His comments in fact affirm the opposite of what he is articulating," Ahmedi concluded. "If indeed the Kurds are 'Iranian,' why is there a need by an artist to state this?"

Editing by John J. Catherine

Additional reporting by Wladimir van Wilgenburg