The Iranian Kurdish Movement at Home and in Exile: From Decline to Revival

Allan Hassaniyan

Allan Hassaniyan is Lecturer in Middle East Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. He is the author of Kurdish Politics in Iran, Crossborder Interactions and Mobilisation since 1947 (Cambridge University Press, 2020), and has published many articles in peer-reviewed journals including Kurdish Studies, Middle Eastern Studies and Conflict, Security and Development.

Hassaniyan’s research focuses on the study of historical and contemporary trends and evenest shaping the twentieth and twenty-first centuries’ development of the state and society in Iran, with a particular focus on identity politics/politics from Iran’s peripheral regions, such as the country’s Kurdish region (Rojhelat/Eastern Kurdistan). All together Hassaniyan’s research interests comprise contemporary Iranian and Kurdish politics, Kurdish nationalism and national movement, and environmental and cultural activism in Kurdistan.

Abstract

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Kurdish politics and the Kurdish national movement in Iran provide a unique case study with many unexplored elements. A defining aspect of Kurdish identity politics in Iran in recent decades is the multiplication of the number of actors within this movement, which have established varying counter-hegemonic discourses and practices, challenging Iran’s Islamic regime from different angles. Tehran has observed the growing Kurdish national sentiment with anxiety, and has implemented a wide range of excessive securitisation and militarisation measures in the Kurdish-inhabited region to mollify this development. This paper reflects on various aspects of the Kurdish-state conflict in Iran, with a focus on the current (twenty-first century) elements of this conflict.

Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies