A New Iran Begins in Kurdistan But Only Through the Unity of All People

Hanieh Mohammadi

Kurdistan: Not the Periphery, but the Beating Heart of Resistance

For decades, the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan have paid a heavy price for their insistence on dignity, equality, and the right to decide their own future. Despite brutal repression, political marginalization, and economic neglect, Kurdistan has not only resisted, but built institutions, communities, and political culture that embody democratic principles long before they entered the mainstream discourse in central Iran.

What makes Kurdistan a model for the future is not only its resilience, but its historical willingness to join a broader project of liberation for all peoples across Iran — as equal partners, not as subjects of a centralizing

state.

Unity Not Through Sameness, But Through Justice

To build a free Iran, we must abandon the false choice between unity and diversity. True unity does not erase differences — it respects and empowers them. Kurds, Baluch, Arabs, Azeris, Turkmens, and Persians each carry histories of struggle, memory, and resistance. A new democratic Iran must emerge from the recognition that no people’s freedom is complete without the freedom of all others.

Unity Against a Dying Order — Unity Toward a Just One

Resisting a collapsing regime, particularly one as militarized and repressive as the Islamic Republic, requires more than localized protest or isolated uprising. This is the moment when the people of Kurdistan, Baluchistan, Khuzestan, Azerbaijan, Tehran, Gilan, and Sistan must see each other not as rivals, but as comrades in a common fight for liberation.

The future lies in horizontal, grassroots, federated forms of solidarity, where popular councils, civil networks, and autonomous initiatives co-design a new political landscape from below.

Foreign Intervention: Opportunity or Threat? Our Clarity Is Key

In today’s escalating conflict, actors such as Israel are targeting the Islamic Republic’s military infrastructure. While this weakens the machinery of repression, particularly for communities historically brutalized by it, it must be stated clearly: no foreign power will ever guarantee our freedom.

Only through organized, principled, and people-led action can we transform a geopolitical moment into an emancipatory one. It is our unity, not external military pressure, that determines the fate of freedom.

From Kurdistan to the Whole of Iran.

This Is a Moment of Decision

Kurdistan has long offered a living example of democratic resistance. But this experience can only reshape Iran if it becomes part of a wider collective movement — built on solidarity, not hierarchy; on inclusion, not exclusion.

Now is a historic moment. We either allow ourselves to be divided by language, ethnicity, religion, or class — or we rise with conscious unity, rooted in our shared pain and shared hope, to shape a free tomorrow.

The liberation of one people cannot be realized without the liberation of all.

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