Sovereignty and Developmental Policies in Palestine and Eastern Kurdistan

Abstract

Inspired by the scholarship on Palestine studies and particularly by Sara Roy’s “de-development” theory, this paper investigates how the sovereign ethno-nation in Iran instrumentalizes and distorts development to subjugate the minoritized Kurdish nation. Along with contextualizing de-development theory within the broader discipline of developmental studies and outlining how de-development works in practice, we compare the political-economic conditions of Rojhelat (Eastern Kurdistan/Iran) with those of Palestine to underscore the key similarities and differences between these two cases.