Asso Hassan Zadeh: Iran Will Endure Only Through Respect for Its Nations
Asso Hassan Zadeh, member of the Executive Board of the Iranian Relations Committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, said that a future democratic Iran will be sustainable only if it is built on political justice, acceptance of pluralism and respect for the rights of the country’s diverse nations.
According to Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), Hassan Zadeh made the remarks at the conference “Human Rights in Post–Islamic Republic Iran,” held in Oslo on 18–19 October 2025 at the initiative of IHRNGO. Referring to eight decades of Kurdish political struggle in Iran and three years since the Woman, Life, Freedom movement began in Kurdistan, he said: “Unfortunately, we still have to explain that the demands of the Kurdish nation are fully defensible under universal human rights principles.” He added that the lack of a shared understanding of human rights and the opposition’s inability to accept diversity remain among the main reasons for the absence of broad unity among forces opposing the Islamic Republic.
Criticising narrow and one-dimensional views of human rights, Hassan Zadeh said that liberal, socialist or cultural approaches alone cannot address the realities of a future Iran. “Only a pluralistic approach can guarantee equality while respecting diversity,” Hassan Zadeh said, referring to international human rights covenants and interpretations by international institutions that recognise the right to self-identification and self-determination as fundamental for peoples living within multinational states.
The member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran also criticised the use of terms such as “ethnic group” or “tribe.” “These words are not only degrading,” he said, “they also deny the national identity of Iran’s peoples.” He added that the UN Human Rights Committee has affirmed that the existence of peoples with distinct identities within a country is an objective reality and does not depend on the will of governments.
Referring to the principle of self-determination in international covenants, Hassan Zadeh said that nearly a century ago the Permanent Court of International Justice recognised that even the cultural rights of ethnic communities require autonomous institutions for their effective implementation. “The demands of oppressed nations should not be suppressed in the name of territorial integrity,” Hassan Zadeh added, “and political parties representing these nations have the democratic right to advocate federalism or even independence, provided they do not promote violence or hatred.”
Hassan Zadeh also criticised what he described as a common misunderstanding of the term “separatism.” “This term has no equivalent in many living languages,” Hassan Zadeh said, “and if what is meant is independence movements, we should recognise that in many democratic systems pro-independence parties participate fully in their countries’ political processes.”
Hassan Zadeh also criticised the neglect of the right of national communities to participate directly in decisions about their political status. “International conventions clearly state that the legal status of these nations should be decided by the peoples themselves,” Hassan Zadeh said, “not by the entire population of the country.”
Quoting the French jurist Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis, one of the authors of the French Civil Code, Hassan Zadeh concluded: “Any simplification is the source of injustice,” Hassan Zadeh added, “and if injustice has been repeated in modern Iranian history, it is because central power has repeatedly suppressed cultural and national diversity in the name of national unity. If denying diversity has led to authoritarianism, let respect for diversity this time lead us to democracy.”
Translated from Farsi via machine translation and lightly edited for clarity.