This article studies the political function of religion in Eastern Kurdistan (Iranian Kurdistan) during the Iranian revolution, 1979, and early years after its victory. It tries to answer the questions as; what is the effect of ideological hegemony of religion and its conversion to a political tool on the political issues of Kurdistan? And whether the religious ideology is a factor to solidarity or disintegration among Kurds? It clarifies the understanding of political groups on their society as a traditional society and the circumstances related to the time and place. In this regard, the function of Maktab Qur'an (Qur'an School) as most important Islamist trend at that time is examined. Besides, the stance and the approach of central government, some groups and main parties in Kurdistan in relation to religion are studied. This paper also makes an attempt to study the Islamist idealism and the ideological conflict between religion and left movement, its results and effects on Kurdistan's events.
<em>This article studies the relationship between religion and political identity in Eastern Kurdistan located in Iran. For this purpose, it reviews at first the theoretical debates on social and political identities, the bases of Kurdish individual’s political identity and the situation of religion in Kurdish society as one of them.<strong> </strong>Then,<strong> </strong>the quantitative and analytical methods are used to measure the effect of religion. The results show that religion and religious identity are still important determinants of political identity in Kurdistan that is affected by the situation of society. Because of both the influence of religion in this traditional society and the existence of a totalitarian religious government, the other social factors and identities cannot practically affect the political identity, though they are also important and powerful in the society, especially the Kurdish identity. Hence, the political identity of Kurdish youth is further affected by the government’s politics and policies that reinforce both Iranian and religious identities and prevent the manifestation of the other identities in political arena. </em>
This article studies the ‘national question’ and its importance in the Left thought and movement from a realistic and pragmatic perspective. It insists that during the history of this movement, the nationalistic reading on the Left thought even in main socialist countries led to confiscating Marxism in favor of the nationalistic interests, though it apparently emphasized on the internationalist slogans. And the theoreticians and pragmatic Marxist leaders of any country according to the different conditions and priorities had a special interpretation of Marxism. While in some third world countries, the oppressed nations’ nationalistic desires have been condemned by the Left organizations of the dominant nations as deviation from Marxism, to trivialize the national question. This climate affected some Kurdish Left parties so that they at first followed the romantic and idealistic leftists of the nations who don’t have the national question, but afterward with awareness of their theoretical and political mistakes, they tried to distance themselves from them and moved towards realism. So, the author seeks to answer, why it happened and what has its effects been on the Kurdistan politics? In this relation, the article in the different parts examines the importance of the national question and nationalism in the Marxist theories, the Left movement in Iran and Kurdistan totally, and Komala-Kurdistan Toilers Revolutionary Organization of Iran in particular.
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