Iran’s exiled minority groups are uniting to support the country’s protest movement in an attempt to boost their voices alongside growing calls to reinstate the Pahlavi monarchy.
Ahwaz Arabs, Turks, Kurds and Balochis are among the country’s ethnic and linguistic groups who want to see a move away from the Islamic Revolution, arguing that although they are "different people", they are "all part of Iran". They hope to put their case to match the voices of Persian nationalism in any emerging system.
The wider coalition appears to be gaining ground around the body known as the Broad Solidarity for Freedom and Equality in Iran, which was formed in 2024. Over the past month, the organisation has been holding demonstrations across Europe, with a rally planned for Brussels on Saturday, February 14.
It has emerged with the backing of the Congress of Nationalities of Federal Iran, which was founded in London in 2005 to represent Iran's minority groups. The parties in exile in the Congress have been newly active in the past few weeks. It issued a statement in support of the EU sanctions on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran's minorities that are part of the Congress, such as the Baluchestan People Party and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), as well as left-wing and green organisations. One unifying goal is a democracy that is inclusive of minorities and their cultural rights.
Millions of Iranians across the country took to the streets in late December and January demanding a change in government. Those protests were repressed by the regime, which put the official death toll at 5,000 people – but human rights groups outside Iran said the number could be as high as 30,000.
A petering internet shutdown has meant that information is still coming out gradually.
Spirit of anticipation
Several Ahwaz parties in exile, most of them based in the UK, formed a council of parties in the heat of the protests so that they can campaign for a change in government in Iran while also speaking in once voice for their rights.
The Co-ordinating Council of Ahwaz Organisations launched in early January, to “work towards the achievement of legitimate national and human rights of our people.”
“The regime is not wanted by all of the people in Iran. But there are differences in what we suffer and what we demand,” said London-based Ahwaz campaigner Abdulrahman Al Haideri, who serves as the council’s spokesman for foreign affairs.
Their main partners outside of the council have been other exiled minorities. “Our main contact is with these other nations,” Mr Al Haideri told The National.
Mr Al Haidari is a secessionist, who hopes the Ahwaz will vote for their own state in a future referendum organised by a democratic state.
He left Iran in 2012 and says he has not had contact with his siblings and family there in recent weeks, fearing that by speaking to them they could face persecution by the authorities.
Others in the council believe the Ahwaz should remain a part of Iran as a federal state. Anticipating a new order in Tehran, Iranian Kurdish parties are discussing a road map of key principles for a future government. Those involved in these talks expect an agreement to be reached in the coming weeks.
“The solidarity among Iranians inside Iran is stronger than ever, they know the nature of the regime,” said Razgar Alani, a UK-based representative of the PDKI.
Mr Alani has been busy engaging with British MPs and other groups to get more public support for the protests – which he says is central to providing Iranians inside hope that they will succeed with their demands. “Solidarity with the people inside is very important. When the people inside Iran see solidarity from the West, it gives them energy,” he said.
“I don't believe the Iranian people can topple the current Tehran regime alone. They will do everything they can to stay in power,” he said, pointing to the death toll.
All of these groups are now closely watching the Omani-brokered talks between the US and Iran, which so far have centred on the nuclear agreement. “Everyone is on standby to see how the negotiations in Oman will go and what the result will be,” said Kako Aliyar, of the Komala Party, a left-wing Kurdish party with an armed group in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
President Donald Trump, who has assembled an “armada” of US sea and air power south of Iran, has described the first round meeting as “good” and said another encounter is expected.
Mr Aliyar fears that “war is inevitable”, but that it would ultimately be decided by the US and Iran. “If it will be a war it is not something we have decided,” he said. “We will protect Kurdish people and stand for their rights.”
While there is speculation that the Kurds, who have armed wings in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, would be prepared to engage in an armed struggle against the regime in the event of US strikes, this was ruled out by the Iraqi-Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Friday.
Demonstrations within
One feature of the demonstrations both in Iran and overseas has been calls to bring back the monarchy that was overthrown by the Islamic revolution in 1979. The figurehead for that movement is Reza Pahlavi, the late shah’s heir, who has lived in the US since the revolution.
Previous rounds of demonstrations have provided a clamour for the Pahlavis in the way that was seen at the start of the year. Talk of Mr Pahlavi is now on how he can act as a unifying figure in the new protest movement.
As an activist, Mr Al Haideri has reservations that the monarchy would only make Persian nationalism a blockade for the aspirations of his and other ethnic minorities.
He said the Ahwaz community in the UK did not join the continuing daily protests outside the Iranian embassy this year, because they had concerns that “extreme monarchists” who were present there would attack them.
“The extreme monarchists are very violent,” he said, claiming there were clashes with monarchists outside the Iranian embassy during the Women, Life, Freedom protests in 2022. Police made arrests outside the Iranian embassy last year and again on January 16 at the peak of the crackdown in Iran.
Ahwaz activists accuse the regime of suppressing their cultural and political rights, expropriating land from farming families and causing untold environmental damage to the province by diverting water from the two rivers that run through Ahwaz to other provinces.
But they also remember that this was a process that began under the shah’s rule – as he sought to unify the country with a strong Persian identity.
Iranian Kurdish human rights activist Rebin Rahmani said he was alarmed by a social media video showing a supporter of an Iranian monarchy in Europe calling for the opposition of a shah to be executed.
Mr Rahmani works with the Kurdish Human Rights Network, a France-based charity that has been painstakingly documenting the killings and abuse of Kurdish protesters in the last few weeks.
“As a human rights organisation we expect that the next phase of Iran will have no executions,” he told The National. “We speak to our colleagues who are Azeri, Arabs, Balochis. They all have the same concerns.
“We believe in diversity. There are different people, it is true we are all part of Iran.”
“We have a very broad connection with other minorities in Iran, and a broad contact with the general opposition,” he said.
