Ethnic Divide and Its Impact on the Formation of Political Sub-Discourses Among Iranian Kurds During the First Two Decades of the Islamic Republic

Abstract

This article analyzes the political sub-discourses of Kurdish political forces during the first two decades following the Islamic Revolution, employing the discourse analysis method of Laclau and Mouffe. It examines the discursive system of two Kurdish sub-discourses in this period, shaped by the deepening of the ethnic divide resulting from the policies of the Islamic Republic, particularly with the onset of the imposed war and the pursuit of a specific type of nationalism by the government. Furthermore, it seeks to analyze the discursive transformations of Kurdish political sub-discourses influenced by the overlapping effects of religious and class divides on the ethnic divide within the framework of Stein Rokkan’s social cleavage theory, which views significant historical events as factors contributing to the emergence and intensification of cleavages. This study employs discourse analysis as the research method, with Stein Rokkan’s social cleavage theory forming its theoretical foundation.