According to the Azerbaijan sources, more than 30 million Azerbaijanis live in Iran, despite this, they are not allowed to study in their native language, those who defend this right can be imprisoned, tortured and lose their jobs. Iranian Ministry of Culture ordered in several occasions that it is banned to use Azerbaijani language on tombstones and shop signs.................
International Mother Language Day is an observance held annually on 21 February worldwide to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. It was first announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999. Its observance was also formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages.[1]
International Mother Language Day originated as the international recognition of Language Movement Day, which has been commemorated in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) since 1952, when a number of University of Dhaka students were killed by the Pakistani police and army in Dhaka during Bengali Language Movement protests.
On 21 March 1948, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Governor general of Pakistan, declared that Urdu would be the only official language for both West and East Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), whose main language is Bangla, started to protest against this. On 21 February 1952, (8th Falgun 1358 in the Bangla calendar), students in the present day capital city of Dhaka called for a provincial strike. The government invoked a limited curfew to prevent this and the protests were tamed down so as to not break the curfew. The Pakistani police fired on the students despite these peaceful protests and a number of students were killed. Four of them were Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abul Barkat and Abdul Jabbar
In Sweden, between 150 and 200 different languages are spoken. The largest is Swedish with about 8 million speakers, the second largest Finnish with about 300,000 speakers. Many native speakers have only a few hundred speakers in Sweden, as the African languages woolof or Mandinka.
It is important for every person to have the opportunity to use and get good at their native language - a right that is obvious to many, but certainly not for everyone. The research shows that immigrant children who receive much education in their native language do better in school, and they are often better in Swedish. Sweden is a free country if you compare Sweden with Iran to get a different picture of reality. According to the Azerbaijan sources, more than 30 million Azerbaijanis live in Iran, despite this, they are not allowed to study in their native language, those who defend this right can be imprisoned, tortured and lose their jobs. Iranian Ministry of Culture ordered in several occasions that it is banned to use Azerbaijani language on tombstones and shop signs. Because of this grim reality, Azerbaijani National Association organize special ceremonies or demonstrations related to specific international mother language day each year. Year 2011, 21st February As in previous years, the Azerbaijani National Association holds a special ceremony in Stockholm to defend language rights in Iran.
