Review
"Farideh Koohi-Kamali shows with great clarity the economic and social changes which enabled a transition from tribal to national identity among the Kurds of Iran during the twentieth century. It greatly increases our understanding of how and why the question of ethnicity has become so important in the region. Her fine book deserves to be very widely read indeed."--David McDowall, author of A Modern History of the Kurds
"This is first-rate, up-to-date analysis of an increasingly important topic. Its insights into the Kurdish problem in Iran will provide valuable information to both scholars and practitioners."--Michael Gunter, Professor of Political Science, Tennessee Technological University, and author of The Kurdish Predicament in Iraq: A Political Analysis
"This is first-rate, up-to-date analysis of an increasingly important topic. Its insights into the Kurdish problem in Iran will provide valuable information to both scholars and practitioners."--Michael Gunter, Professor of Political Science, Tennessee Technological University, and author of The Kurdish Predicament in Iraq: A Political Analysis
Product Description
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.
