The Political Development of the Kurds in Iran: Pastoral Nationalism

The Political Development of the Kurds in Iran examines the links between the structural changes in the Kurdish economy, and its political demands, namely Kurdish nationalism in Iran. Farideh Koohi-Kamali argues that the transition of the nomadic, tribal society of Kurdistan to an agrarian, village society was the beginning of a process, whereby Kurds see themselves as a community with a homogeneous ethnic identity. She interrogates the political movements of the Kurds in Iran to argue that the different phases of economic development of Kurdish society played a great role in determining the ways Kurds expressed their political demands for independence. The significant contribution of this book is in the analysis of rare data, where the author examines a number of economic and demographic factors which contributed to: the distingeration of the nomadic, tribal society of Kurdistan (change); the cohesion and solidarity within Kurdistan (continuity); and those indicators of inequality between Kurdistan and Iran as the final precondition of the development of a unified nationalist consciousness/identity amongst the Kurds.