Could Kurdish riots in Iran be the beginning of Kurdish Spring?

On May 4, Farinaz Khosravani, a maid at the four-star Tarai hotel in Mahabad, Iran died after falling from a 4^th floor balcony at the hotel.. Kurdish news sources allege the women’s death resulted from a suicidal attempt to escape sexual assault at the hands of an Iranian intelligence official. In contrast, the hotel claims Khosravani was attempting to move from the fourth floor balcony to the third floor balcony but fell, and the governor of Azerbaijan Province, in which Mahabad is located, denies the involvement of state officials. These denials did not stop the Kurdish community of Mahabad from taking to the streets in protest of the Iranian regime’s brutal treatment of Kurds.

The demonstrations climaxed on May 7 when Kurdish demonstrators set fire to the Tarai hotel where Khosravani’s death occurred. As a result, police and anti-riot forces were called to the scene and are rumored to have used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse crowds.

Clashes between the Iranian Kurdish population and the Iranian Islamic Republic government are not new. After a short-lived independent Kurdish state in Mahabad fell in 1947, all public expressions of a Kurdish identity were banned by the Islamic Republic. While today, teaching the Kurdish language in private is permissible, and a handful of Kurdish representatives serve in the Iranian parliament.

That said however, repression of Kurdish nationalism by the Iranian regime continues. According to an Al-Monitor report, many Kurdish protestors appear to recognize the regime maintains the ability to soundly repress Kurdish nationalist groups. That said however, Kurdish nationalist groups such as the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) are rumored to have thousands of fighters, and the supposed support of the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga. Still, the Iraqi Peshmerga is currently facing its own battles against the Islamic State dwindling its ability to provide support to Iranian Kurds.

Given recent moves towards increased autonomy by Iraqi and Syrian Kurds, it’s not surprising that such sentiment is also growing across the border in Iran. Intense conflicts between the two groups transpired during the 2009 Iranian election protests during which PJAK forces increased its fight for Kurdish rights from the Islamic Republic regime. Despite PJAK’s greatest efforts, the Iranian regime was successfully able to suppress the uprisings and demolish the Kurdish opposition. Because of this recent history, it is very unlikely any current Kurdish uprising will see any success in the form of what they view as justice.