April 1, 2006

Muhammad Tahir, quoted by The Guardian

One of the world’s famous British Daily Newspapers ‘Guardian’ published quotations from the column, written by Muhammad Tahir.
Columnist Simon Tisdall, in his article ‘published on March 31, 2006, about possible ethnic violence in Iran, placed chapter from Muhammad Tahir’s article about social problems of Iranian Turkmen, which originally was published in Institute of war and peace reporting on its march 24, 2006 edition.
Mr. Tisdall, talking about anger of ethnic societies against policies of central Govt. of Iran, quoted the following chapter from Muhammad Tahir’s article about the problems the ethnic Turkmen population of Iran faces today.

“Iran's leaders also face stirrings of discontent in the north-east, home to two to three million ethnic Turkmen. According to Muhammad Tahir, ( He meant article published in IWPR - MT) of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Turkmen say the Persian language, dress codes and customs are being forced on them. "Sunni Muslims in a theocratic Shia state, they feel disadvantaged for both ethnic and religious reasons."