Akbar Azad, Alireza Farshi, Behnam Sheykhi and Hamid Manafi are four civilian activists from South Azerbaijan in Iran which have been sentenced in the court of appeals to 2 years in jail and 2 years in exile, each one.

They have been charged only for attending an International Mother Language Day’s ceremony. The final decree issued by The Court of Appeals in Tehran, shows how the Islamic Regime in Iran tries to suppress those who are trying to serve their own mother language.

Iran is a multi-language, multi-cultural as well as multi-national country. But only Persian language is formal in this country. Despite of the Constitutional Law, other languages are imagined as a threat for national security of the country. Therefore, any attempt to use these languages on the education system or other semi-formal situations is supposed like an act of National Security Violation.