2/4: "The Axis of Resistance." 2/4: Iran is More Than Persia: Ethnic Politics in Iran Hardcover – by Brenda Shaffer (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 7 May 2023
⏱️ 8 minutes
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2/4: "The Axis of Resistance." 2/4: Iran is More Than Persia: Ethnic Politics in Iran Hardcover – by Brenda Shaffer (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Iran-More-Than-Persia-Politics/dp/311079621X
Iran is More than Persia: Ethnic Politics in Iran analyses Iranian politics from a unique perspective, one that focuses on the relations between the Persian-dominated Iranian state and the country's ethnic minorities. The book explores the stability of the ruling regime in light of the challenges that multiethnicity brings. Persians comprise less than half of the population of Iran and more than 40 percent of Iranians lack fluency in the Persian language. An overwhelming majority of non-Persian groups inhabit most of Iran's border regions; as such the book explores Iran's foreign policy toward neighboring states that share co-ethnic populations. Iran's ethnic minorities inhabit the state's poorest provinces and the country's growing environmental and water supply challenges hit the ethnic minority provinces harder than the Persian center, adding an ominous ethnic character to what are often presented as purely environmental or economic challenges. The book further examines the potential impact of ethnic based unrest in Khuzestan on Iran's oil production, Iran's main oil producing region. Drawing on a rich assortment of primary data and interviews, this book offers unparalled insights into ethnic politics in Iran. It will be of interest to upper-level undergraduates and postgraduates, researchers and professionals interested in the Middle East, international relations, and ethnic studies
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batslur. |
| 0:06.1 | It is December 1979, a constitution underway for the Islamic Republic of Iran, led by the |
| 0:13.4 | Ayatollah Khomeini, who's returned from exile in Paris, but there are other Ayatollahs |
| 0:18.6 | we need to speak of. |
| 0:19.8 | And Brenda Schaefer's new book Iran is more than Persia, ethnic politics in Iran. |
| 0:25.4 | There is the Ayatollah Shariat Madhari, who speaks for the Azerbaijani at the time. |
| 0:33.3 | Eventually he'll be persecuted, a house arrested, and died in 1986. |
| 0:39.3 | But he objected right away to what he perceived to be a Persian-centric, Tehran-dominated |
| 0:47.8 | decision-making by the Constitution. |
| 0:50.9 | And he was a brave man to speak up. |
| 0:52.9 | But others from the other ethnic groups also speak up Brenda. |
| 0:57.1 | The story of the Islamic Republic was that after Khomeini returned to Iran, his emissaries |
| 1:05.7 | basically they reached out to all the major ethnic groups, and they offered them language |
| 1:12.6 | rights, cultural rights, schools. |
| 1:14.8 | And so if you think about it, they offered this because they knew that this was attractive |
| 1:18.7 | to the minorities. |
| 1:19.7 | It tells you something about those who claim that, oh, they don't care about their languages |
| 1:24.3 | anymore, and it's not important to them. |
| 1:28.2 | They try to seduce them to support the regime with language rights and school rights to |
| 1:33.4 | educate their children and their native languages. |
| 1:37.3 | But the minute they gained power, they crystallized their power, they take away this offer of |
| 1:46.0 | these rights. |
... |
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