A Nation Defended

Abstract

Minority demands and ethnicist discourses on cultural difference represent a profound challenge to the common nationalist notion of what it means to be an Iranian. The issues discussed in this chapter point to a discursive gap between nationalists and ethnicists: the question of how to define “the ethnic” and “the national,” whether such terms are mutually exclusive or reciprocally reinforcing, and what role they play in defining the identities of those living in Iran.

Mayangiz fetne, mayafuz kin

kharabi mayar iranzamin.

[Do not spread sedition, do not incite hatred

Do not bring destruction to the land of Iran.]

—Nezami, Sharafname, late twelfth century