The War in Iran has brought the Kurdish struggle back into the spotlight. The scale of popular protests in 2022 and 2026 illustrated the dissatisfaction of Kurds, the strength of their identity and the urgency of their demands. Yet studies on the Kurds in Iran remain limited. This edited book brings together scholars from across Kurdish and Iranian studies to examine many aspects of Iranian Kurdistan since the 1979 Revolution. Kurdish society in Iran has been dynamic and resistant, while undergoing great transformations over the last four decades .

The research presented identifies Kurdish responses to the hierarchy established in Iran through the dominance of Persian identity. This book takes a multidisciplinary approach to create a key resource for scholars of Iran and Kurdish Studies. The ten chapters cover a wide range of subjects from history, economics, politics and music, to gender, civil society, film and the diaspora. The first edited work on the Kurds in Iran, the book is based on the new theoretical and academic achievements of the past few decades.

Marouf Cabi is Visiting Fellow at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK and a visiting professor at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He is the author of Iranian Kurdistan Under the Islamic Republic (2024) and The Formation of Modern Kurdish Society in Iran (2022).

Allan Hassaniyan is Lecturer in Middle East Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK. He is the author of Kurdish Politics in Iran: Crossborder Interactions and Mobilisation since 1947 (2021).

Robert Lowe is Deputy Director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He is co-editor of I.B. Tauris-Bloomsbury's Kurdish Studies Series. He has co-edited The Kurdish Policy Imperative (2010) and Governance of Resistance in North and East Syria (2025).