Mona Silavi, Secretary-General of the Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz (DSPA), said that the concept of Iranian identity must be fundamentally redefined if equality among the country’s diverse peoples is to be achieved.
Mona Silavi, Secretary-General of the Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz (DSPA), said that the concept of Iranian identity must be fundamentally redefined if equality among the country’s diverse peoples is to be achieved.
According to Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), Silavi made the remarks at the conference “Human Rights in Post–Islamic Republic Iran,” held in Oslo on 18–19 October 2025. Referring to the historical experience of discrimination against Iranian Arabs, she said that the DSPA has been active since 2005 to defend the ethnic rights of Arabs and to address what she described as the “Arab question” within the framework of Iran.
Silavi explained that, unlike some Arab political groups that advocate separation, her party believes that ethnic and linguistic discrimination can be resolved only within a secular, federal and decentralised republican system. She also noted that her leadership of the party reflects broader cultural change. “The acceptance of a woman as leader of our party is itself a sign of cultural transformation in my society,” she said, “and it shows that social reform and gender equality must advance alongside political reform.”
According to Silavi, resolving discrimination in Iran requires two fundamental changes: redefining the concept of Iranian identity and transforming the country’s broader social culture. She argued that the concept of Iranian identity—shaped during the Pahlavi period around Aryanism and Persian centrality, and later reinforced in the Islamic Republic through the dominance of Shi’a Islam—must be reconsidered.
“Iranian identity should not be equated with being Persian or Shi’a,” she said, “because Iran belongs to all languages and cultures that exist within it.” She added that recognising Arabic, Balochi or Kurdish as Iranian languages would make demands for mother-tongue education far less contentious.
She stressed that achieving such change requires what she described as a cultural transformation before a political transformation. “Changing the regime does not necessarily mean changing society,” she said, “and if the culture of society does not change, authoritarianism will simply reproduce itself in a new form.”
Referring to developments in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, she argued that social attitudes can persist even after political change. In some schools, she said, corporal punishment of children continues to be widely accepted because the broader culture of violence and coercion remains embedded in society.
Drawing on psychological concepts, she suggested that Iranian public culture has become trapped in a sense of historical victimhood, focusing on past imperial glory and narratives of suffering rather than future-oriented transformation. “This society has not yet learned that both the oppressor and the oppressed in its history must be critically examined,” she said, “rather than romanticising one side of that past.”
The Secretary-General of the Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz also criticised the denial of Arab identity in Iran, arguing that the right to define ethnic identity belongs to the people themselves. “No one can tell me that I am not Arab,” she said, “because the identity of an individual or a nation is formed through self-recognition and collective will, not through historical labels imposed from above.”
In her concluding remarks, she stressed the importance of linking democracy and autonomy at both national and regional levels. “Even if a region were to gain independence tomorrow,” Silavi said, “democracy would not remain stable if authoritarianism continued to dominate neighbouring societies. Authoritarianism is like a contagious disease, and if my neighbour is ruled by tyranny, my own freedom will remain at risk.”
Translated from Farsi via machine translation and lightly edited for clarity.