Iranian Mazandaranis are Shia Muslims who have largely remained in the same region of northern Iran for the past 1,000 years.[1]  However, the group’s native tongue of Mazandarani has faded significantly over the past century, as Iran’s schools and media outlets have promulgated Farsi, the country’s official language.[2]  Urbanization has also contributed to the language’s decline; while Mazandarani is still spoken by some in the province’s cities, most speakers hail from more remote locales.[3] 

Demography

According to the 2007 CIA World Factbook, Mazandaranis and Gilakis – a neighboring people from Gilan Province – together constitute 8 percent of the Iranian population, which would put their collective numbers at roughly 5.2 million.[4]  This aggregate percentage has remained relatively steady for the past 17 years.  However, separating this figure into two group estimates has been complicated by the scarcity of national census data on ethnic composition.  One source, though, does suggest that Mazandaranis constituted roughly 5 percent of the country’s population in 1993,[5] a year in which the Gilaki/Mazandarani aggregate CIA figure was 8 percent.

Geographic Distribution

The traditional homeland of the Mazandarani people is the northern Iranian province bearing their name: Mazandaran.  The region borders the Caspian Sea, receives significant precipitation[6] and contains large amounts of fertile farmland, making it one of the most prosperous provinces[7] in a nation where almost 90 percent of the land is arid.[8] 

Fishing and farming – rice is a major crop[9] – continue to be popular occupations,[10] but Mazandaranis have increasingly sought ought employment in cities over the course of the last century as Iran has become more modernized.[11]  In fact, Mazandaran Province is now one of the country’s more urbanized areas.[12] 

Historic Hardship

In general, Mazandaranis do not have a history of enduring hardship or state-sanctioned oppression.  The province is relatively wealthy, owing to its strong agricultural sector, and many residents have attained high socioeconomic standing.  Mazandaranis have also historically practiced Shia Islam, Iran’s dominant faith.  Additionally, in contrast to many other Iranian minority groups with transnational ethnic brethren, Mazandaranis are largely contained within Iran’s borders.  As such, the separatist and anti-nationalistic sentiments that could provoke government action are inherently limited.[13] 

Ongoing Hardship

There is little evidence that the hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad specifically targets Mazandaranis based on their ethnicity.  However, concerns still exist.  Of note is a 2004 incident in which a 16-year-old girl (her ethnicity is unclear from reports) from the Mazandaran town of Neka was publicly hanged for alleged sexual transgressions.  The Iranian courts ignored reports that the girl was suffering from a mental illness and then sought to validate the execution by falsely claiming that the she was 22.[14]

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