SANANDAJ, Iran – Families in Iranian Kurdistan are increasingly seeking out Kurdish language centers to teach their children how to read, write, and speak in their mother tongue, fearing the language is going extinct.
Language centers like the Razha Institute in the heart of Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, offer classes for children, university students, and even the elderly.
“The child learners initially take basic grammar courses at their institute and then we teach them reading and writing techniques of Kurdish language,” said Suhaila Mohammedi, 52, who has been teaching Kurdish for 22 years.
“The age of child learners range from eight to 15. I am very pleased to work as a volunteer at this center to teach our children our own language.”
“These pupils are now readied to even help teach their own teachers at their schools the Kurdish language, because, unfortunately, the official teaching language in Iran is Persian only,” she said.
“The majority of teachers at schools do not know how to read and write in their Kurdish mother tongue,” she added.
Mohammedi blames successive Iranian governments and their policies for the lack of interest in promoting non-Persian courses.
Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution allows Kurdish and other spoken languages in Iran to be used as languages of study.
The constitution allows for the use of “regional and tribal languages” in the press and mass media, and for teaching the literature of those languages in schools.
“The reason why children have little interest in learning or do not have the sense to feel how crucial their mother tongue is because they do not study in their mother tongue at the Rojhilat [Iranian Kurdish] schools,” Mohammedi said.
Farza Ibrahimi, 42, has enrolled two of his children, Kaziwa and Karzan, at the institute because he believes “you are illiterate even if you speak 10 languages unless you speak your mother tongue.”
“I am proud that I have put my children at this center to learn their own language,” he said. “Even though I make very little out of my daily construction job, I am adamant that my children must read and write in their mother tongue.”
Another parent, who asked not to be named, said unless the state officially makes the Kurdish language part of the curriculum in schools, the Kurdish language cannot be saved from oblivion by such centres alone.
“The problem of the Kurdish language cannot be solved in this way. We are calling on the state to dedicate an hour for Kurdish language lessons across our schools. Our children must be allowed to learn how to read and write in their mother language,” she said.
There are around 30 language centers across Iranian Kurdistan – four of them in Sanandaj, including the Razha, Zagros, Nojin and Mawlawi institutes.
‘Unite to save the language’
Iran is home to an estimated 10 million Kurds who live predominantly in the western parts of the country.
Kurds worldwide mark International Mother Language Day on February 21, but the ethnolinguistic community still struggles with its use due a history of repressive state measures and struggles to standardize the language.
Established by UNESCO, the United Nations body for culture, education, and science, International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since 2000 to “promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.”
Major Kurdish dialects like Sorani and Kurmanji are not among those considered endangered by UNESCO, but they have experienced varying levels of state suppression across the four countries they inhabit – Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. The area where these regions meet is known by Kurds as Greater Kurdistan.
Almost half of the world’s languages are considered endangered, according to UNESCO, including the Kurdish dialects of Hawrami in Iraq and Iran and Zazaki in Turkey.
On International Mother Language Day this year, activities were held in Iranian Kurdistan to raise awareness about the dangers posed to the Kurdish language.
The Kurdish Language and Literature Department of Kurdistan University in Sanandaj hosted special events to mark the date.
“The biggest problem is that children in Rojhelat are not well trained or psychologically prepared before going to school,” Hassan Gharibi, a psychologist at the university, told Rudaw English.
“Children speak in their mother tongue until they are seven and all of a sudden they are put in school and forced to speak, read, and write in a foreign language. At this point they are shocked and confused,” he said.
“Once children start to go to school, they find it really boring, because they simply cannot speak another language. This problem will grow with the children. Therefore, according to all the data available, the largest ratio of failure at primary schools comes from the Kurdish regions of Iran as Persian is not the first language.”
“If we really would like to find a grassroots solution, we should unite to save the language and, just like the rest of the world, the children must be first taught their mother tongue, and then the foreign language,” he added.
Sanandaj’s University of Kurdistan opened its Kurdish language department five years ago, offering a four-year degree in the subject. Gharibi warns this is not enough to address the issue.
“This is not a solution. Kurdish children must be taught the Kurdish language from primary school,” he said.
In spite of constitutional provisions in place since 1979, non-Persian languages are still not being taught in schools.
“The basic right of any nation in the world is to study and write in your mother tongue. Not just Kurds, other nations alike including Arabs, Azeris, and Balochis must be allowed to study in their mother tongues,” Shaho Khizri, a student at the university, told Rudaw.
“Not just Kurdish grammar, but also other subject including math, history, and chemistry must be studied in the Kurdish language. This is our right,” he added.
Chnur Hakimi, a lawyer, recalls struggling on her first day of school.
“I still remember when on the first day of school at a village [near Diwandara city of Kurdistan Province] a teacher wanted to teach us another language’s alphabet. We were all shocked. We did not know what he was talking about. All we could do was just nod and look at his mouth to see how was he expressing the letters. We just did not understand anything,” Hakimi said.
She and her brother both failed grade one.
“Our family thought we were lazy and not good enough to go to school,” she said.
Hakimi is glad to have proved them wrong.
“We were very clever. We finished school and even university,” she said.
“I am sure there are dozens of children who are very smart but have dropped out, just because of the language barrier,” she said. “If education was in Kurdish, many of them could now be doctors and engineers.”
She lays partial blame on Kurdish MPs in the Iranian parliament for failing to advocate for the Kurdish language.
“Once they go there, they just forget all the promises they have made,” she added.
Translation by Zhelwan Z. Wali, editing by Robert Edwards
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