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Iran social media urges respect for linguistic diversity

Society Materials 22 February 2017 16:38 (UTC +04:00)
A large number of Iranian social media users observing International Mother Language Day posted comments and shared photos as well as memories to speak their minds on multilingual education, calling for respect to linguistic diversity.
Iran social media urges respect for linguistic diversity

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 22

By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:

A large number of Iranian social media users observing International Mother Language Day posted comments and shared photos as well as memories to speak their minds on multilingual education, calling for respect to linguistic diversity.

In the meantime, members of the country’s ethnic groups urged for protection of the right to speak in their mother tongues.

Mahmoud Sadeghi, an Iranian lawmaker, posted a comment on his Twitter account on Feb. 21 quoting a part of article 15 of the country’s constitution protecting the right to linguistic diversity in the Islamic Republic.

“The official language and script of Iran, the lingua franca of its people, is Persian. Official documents, correspondence, and texts, as well as textbooks, 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,” the article 15 of Iran’s constitution reads.

“Many of Iranian children are barred from speaking in their mother languages in order to speak Persian perfectly and fluently. When a language is eliminated, a culture is eliminated as well,” a Twitter user wrote.

“Languages are innocent, they have committed no crimes,” another user tweeted.

The above Instagram post depicts children from two ethnic groups of Iran – Azerbaijanis (on the left) and Arabs (on the right). The sentence in Azerbaijani Turkic on the blackboard on the left side of the photo reads “what happened to our mother language?” And the sentence in Arabic on the right side reads “my language is my identity”.

Iranian ethnic groups in traditional clothing

The social media comments posted by Iranian users marking International Mother Language Day mostly called on the officials to grant the right to educate children in their mother tongues in a bid to preserve their cultures and identities.

Iran is a home to many ethnic groups with over a dozen languages, including Baluchi, Luri, Arabic and Azerbaijani Turkic.

Although President Hassan Rouhani during his 2013 electoral campaign promised to make it possible to teach ethnic languages at schools, the country’s education policy has not met the expectations on taking account of the linguistic diversity.

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Farhad Daneshvar is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @Farhad_Danesh

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