Oral Statement of Alliance for Minority Rights 12th session of the Forum on minority issues in Geneva, 29 November 2019 Item 5: Language, education and the empowerment of minority women and girls Madam Chair, The Kurds are originally a linguistic nation, because of that, the state and nations who occupied Kurdistan, have ever tried to ban the Kurdish language as a way to destroy this 40 million people. This way of acting were, and is the formal policy of Iranian government to assimilate our nation and erase it from history. To achieve that inhumanity goal, the occupiers of Kurdistan, have tried to kill or imprison the Poet, Writers and the teachers who are using the Kurdish language in their schools, even secretly. Farzad Kamangar is a well-known example of these Kurdish teachers who was persecuted on charges of Mohareb "enmity towards God" on May 2010. The destiny of Zara Mohammadi, a Kurdish language teacher in a local NGO in Sanadaj, since her arrest on May 2019, by Iranian security agents is unclear. I myself, was a teacher, who loved his students, his job and his Mother language, but I left my country, just because of my struggles in the area of my Mother language. Because of the Iranian intelligence agency threats. The situation of the Poet and writers is even worse. Zhakan Baran, a Kurdish poet from Îlam, left the country currently. Our organization recommends to the Iranian government: - To free arrested activists and volunteer teachers who teach in the mother tongue. - To make the necessary changes in the Iranian constitution in order to recognize the national groups and linens. - To ensure educations in the mother tongue from kindergartens to university. Thank You Email : amr-ge@hotmail.com