“look at the signature”: I used the term “ethno-national”, which means a shared culture usually in a geographic location. It is not the same as civic nationalism, which enables people to become part of the nation through assimilation. Iran is a nation of many ethno-nationalities, yet it also has a sense of civic nationalism, as you have pointed out. It is the most diverse country in the world. For Iran to succeed in becoming a functional and stable democracy, any constitutional arrangement has to reflect this diversity. Federalism would benefit provinces such as Yazd, Gilan and Mazandaran as much as Khuzestan, Balochistan and Kurdistan, enabling the provinces to check the power of the centre. Since non-Persian ethnonational groups are concentrated in certain regions, a federal system would give them a certain amount of self-governance without making them an exceptional case vis-a-vis other provinces.
Have I singled out an ethnic group? Yes, I have, but not for any nefarious agenda. I support Ahwazi Arabs because they are not as wealthy, well-resourced and politically connected as other groups in Iran. They deserve to have a voice of their own at an international level. But my position is not without controversy within the Ahwazi Arab community, which itself is split between those who are in favour of seeking a constitutional settlement within Iran and those who believe that freedom can only come about through independence. As I believe independence is unrealistic and undesirable, I made a choice to support those who demand greater regional and cultural autonomy but wish to remain Iranian.
Am I arguing that ethnicity is the only political agency in Iran? Of course not. Women, trade unionists, religious groups that do not believe in the Veliyat-e Faqih (including many Shi’ites), secularists, socialists, the merchant class, etc, all have a role in the freedom struggle in Iran, and many Iranians will have more than one identity: gender, religious faith, political ideology, ethnicity and class. Ahwazi Arab women, for instance, face both ethnic discrimination and gender oppression, perhaps the worst in Iran, due to the ethnic group’s low socio-economic position which has left them largely illiterate, impoverished and rigidly patriarchal – social mobility is the best way to free women from gender oppression. The task of any democratic movement is to bring the broad range of political forces on board, and one of them is the Ahwazi Arab rights movement.
