24-12-2009
By Sabir Qaderi Erbil - The Islamic regime of Iran doesn’t allow Kurdish people to name their children a Kurdish name, and because of that most of the Kurdish children have two names. Nuradin B (30) is one of those victims that has been forced to give his name an Iranian name, because the authorities of Mahabad didn’t want to register his first child with a Kurdish name. “I and my wife agreed to find a Kurdish name for our first child, but the authorities in Iranian establishments didn’t permit on the name and we were forced to choose another name”, Nuradin said. Some Kurdish intellectuals believe that this policy by Islamic regime is another way of eradicating Kurdish identity in Iranian Kurdistan. “Even though Iran is a shia country and shias are very sensitive toward names like Omar, Abu-Bakr and Usman [names of the rival Sunni sect], but you’re allowed to name your child those names. At the same time you’re not allowed to name them Kurdish names like Gizeng, Agren and Peshawa,” saidd Kurdish writer Rasul Sultani. However the Iranian General Consulate in Irbil Azim Hussaini in exclusive interview with Rudaw revealed that after the Iranian revolution in 1979 there isn’t any difficulty to choose Kurdish names for your child, but in registration offices in Mahabad and other Kurdistan cities, it’s totally different. An official in the Mahabad registration office confirmed this news and revealed that it’s not only the Kurds, in fact it happens to Baluchies, Turkmen and the Arabs. In a recent survey by Iranian central registration website, it clearly shows that during the last 8 years most of those names in which has been recorded its shias or persion names, for example for boys name they it’s names like Muhammad, Ali, Mahdi, and for girls it’s names such as Fatima, Zahra and Miriam (Photo: Rudaw). © Rudaw
