XXXII Международный конгресс ИИСАА. 26–28 апреля 2023 г.

156 XXXII Международный Конгресс по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки Секция V Celebi D. (University of Manchester, Great Britain) Jîna Amini or Mahsa Amini? Building an Iranian Identity among the Kurdish People in the Islamic Republic of Iran On September 16, 2022, a 22-year-old young Kurdish woman was killed by Iran’s morality police in Tehran for not having an appropriate dress code (compulsory hijab). Since then, there have been ongoing protests both in Iran and in other countries. While the name of the young lady in the ID was Mahsa which is a Persian name, her real name was Jîna which is a Kurdish name. Since her death, it can be observed that the protest groups have clashed in the use of her Persian name (Mahsa), which is claimed to correspond to her Iranian identity, and her real Kurdish name, Jîna. In this abstract, I will discuss how the Iranian identity has an effect on the Kurdish people in Iran and whether this supra (national)-identity formation is possible. The primary data on which this discussion is based are semi-structured interviews I have conducted with 30 Iranian politicians. ‘Iranian’was first used by the Qajar Empire in the 1906 constitution (the first modern constitution), and the word Iranian was also emphasized in the last constitution, the 1979 constitution. But does being an Iranian point to a diverse and inclusive supra (national) identity or does it correspond to the Persian ethnic identity, which is the dominant culture and consists of 40 percent of Iran? To answer that claim and question, to sum up, according to data obtained from Iranian politicians being an Iranian is a strength of being ‘Persian’. Iranian identity is not inclusive and diverse as its claimed on the constitution in the Iran. Besides data also recent protests both in the Iran and outside of the Iran shows that from having a Kurdish flag or using the chant of ‘women, life, freedom’ is a controversial and not supported by the Persian people as its claimed. Last but not least it is important to remember that in recent protests the approach of the Iran to Kurdish region and Tehran was not same.