Zhina Mahsa Amini: The Story of a Kurdish Woman in Iran

Washington Kurdish Institute

September 23, 2022

Will Amini’s Death have a long-term impact on the situation in Iran? Or will it fade like other state crimes? 

It’s impossible to know. We have other incidents which seem familiar in some ways. I’m thinking of 2009 when we had the young woman by the name of [Neda Agha] Soltan, who we all watched die on video. It struck a chord amongst many Iranians in general. I remember before that the young Kurdish man who was dragged behind trucks through Iranian Kurdistan by the Pasdaran [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and that created protest, and those are just three of many such incidents. But at the same time, it’s always possible that we get to a point where it’s one incident, too many for the regime. It’s hard to know.

Dozens of international media reports and US official condemnations did not mention Amini being a Kurd. Is that because of the unrecognized Kurdish issue in Iran? Or it’s an appeasing policy to the Iranian regime, ignoring the Kurdish struggle of decades?

I noticed this as well. I noticed very few Western reports thought it important enough to mention that she’s from Iranian Kurdistan, from Saqqez, I believe. And I think my impression would be most just thought it wasn’t relevant and that wasn’t related to why she faced repression and so was not relevant. But I think they fundamentally misunderstand in those circumstances because as Kurds knew it very well, especially in Iran, the Kurds face a disproportionate amount of repression from the regime. We know that roughly half the political prisoners and executions in Iran are Iranian Kurds., when they are less than 10% of the population. Most of them are Sunni as well. So, they’re double minorities in a sense from the regime’s perspective and whatever the infraction one can imagine that if the person facing the regime is Kurdish, the reaction is more severe even now in the protests  following her death. We see the death tolls that are reported all seem to be in Iranian Kurdistan. How many coincidences can we have all in one week? I think that the international media should recognize that her being Kurdish is relevant and they make a mistake not to. I think they misunderstand the situation a bit when they don’t mention it, but at the same time, I’m in a way gratified to see protests breaking out throughout the country. Not just in Iranian Kurdistan, we see protests in Tehran, Tabriz, the Black Sea Region, even in conservative majority Persian cities of Iran like Qum, and Mashhadand. To me, this speaks well of the general population of Iran, in general, even though she’s Kurdish, all of them see her as someone who could have been their mother, their wife, their daughter, and I think that’s important. So in that respect, I’m happy that Iranians aren’t focused on her being Kurdish. I mean, the Iranian people, not the regime, whereas I think the media, the international media would do well to recognize this. 

The Iranian regime has had the same racist attitude as its predecessors towards its Kurdish population. There is little information about the regime’s harsh policies toward minorities. Why is that? 

I think someone needs to take the time to look more closely to understand this point, because the official rhetoric of the regime starting in 1979 was that there is no place for ethnicity or nations and Islam, these are foreign impositions from this was Ayatollah Khomeini’s’ rhetoric. These are foreign inventions from those who would like to divide Muslims, and we are all one, but this was really his excuse for not letting the Azeri region, the Kurdish region, the Baluchis, Khuzestan, all have some measures of self-determination and autonomy within Iran. That was just an excuse to install a very oppressive, not only Islamist, but Persian nationalist regime where the government in the center controlled everything. So, he said there’s no place for divisions and nationalism, but then why do they enforce rules where only Persian is permitted? They’re choosing one ethnicity’s language and imposing it on all of them, where really, if you take his rhetoric at face value, everyone should just be able to speak their own language. Since they’re all brothers and sisters and so forth. As soon as you start to peel back the layers of the onion, you start to recognize the hypocrisy that occurs in this regime, but a lot of outside observers don’t have the time or the inclination to understand this complexity. 

How can the Iranian Kurdish voice be heard in Washington? 

I think they need to take every opportunity to publicize what they are facing in the country. The Kurdistan region is also the poorest region I believe in Iran. In fact, all the Kurdistans were the poorest regions of their respective countries only in Bashur, in Iraqi Kurdistan this changed. This was a result of overthrowing Saddam’s regime and replacing it with something more democratic, however imperfect. They need to make this case as much as they can. They also need to do this with other people in Iran. Less than 10% of the population, they can’t hope to change the regime by themselves. They need to overcome the efforts of the regime, to divide the people who would oppose it and instead unite with them. And it can be difficult, especially like with the Azeris where there are overlapping territories that they consider part of their homelands. So where the regime plays upon these divisions, but really, everyone who wants to see a better future needs to overcome their differences and unite around opposition to oppression, frankly. 

What role, if any, can the international community, the US and the EU play to support the Iranian people and more specifically, Iranian Kurds. 

It’s an excellent question. It’s the million dollar question. On one hand if outside actors, whether it’s the West or Gulf Arab countries, if they intervene in whatever way, with moral support, with financial support, with condemnations in the UN, then it plays into the regimes standard broken record, discourse that these are all foreign machinations and interventions and so forth. But at the same time, if they just sit silently while the Basij militia, the Pasdaran, and others oppress the people and go on with business as usual, that doesn’t seem like a satisfactory response either. The truth is, I’m not sure anyone knows what the best response should be. It’s an exceedingly difficult question. I tend to lean towards talking about what’s happening, and condemning the regime in very forceful terms. 

I think over time, especially the people in Iran, they know that this isn’t created by outside powers, that it’s them who are angry and taking to the streets they’re not being asked to do so by Washington or Paris or Riyad, they know the truth. So we need to speak up loudly enough to remind them that we’re watching. We sympathize, they’re not alone. But beyond that, it’s an exceedingly complex issue. I don’t think any Iranians want actual, tangible intervention in Iran, along the lines of 2003 in Iraq, by anyone they’ve had bad experiences with. But I think they want support in one way or another. My tendency would be to ask them what would be the best way to support them. 

Dr. David Romano is a Professor of Middle East Politics at Missouri State University.