Cover not available
Article published In:
Translation Spaces
Vol. 3 (2014) ► pp.71–98

Translation policy in the media

A study of television programs in the province of Kurdistan in Iran

Although Persian is the official language in Iran, legal provisions are available for the use of minority languages in the media. Recent scholarship describes ‘Persianization’ as the ‘building block’ of language policy, overlooking the use of minority languages in official media. This paper examines the scope of this minority language provision in the television programs broadcasted by the state in Kurdistan. It illustrates the use of translation and bilingualism working alongside official monolingualism, calling into question the issue of Persianization. The article first describes the use of non-Persian languages in Iranian state media and shows their proportion vis-a-vis official Persian. Second, it examines the use of Kurdish and the weight of translation in the television programs under study. Advocating translational justice, the paper calls for a clear translation policy and more translation to be offered for programs broadcasted for Kurdish minorities to ensure equal access to media.
Keywords: language policy, Province of Kurdistan, Iranian television, translation policy, minority language media
Published online: 28 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.3.04had
References (62)
Ahmadzadeh, Hashem, and Gareth Stansfield. 2010. “The Political, Cultural, and Military Reawakening of the Kurdish Nationalist Movement in Iran.” Middle East Journal 64 (1): 11–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Algar, Hamed. 1981. Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini. Berkley, CA: Mizan.Google Scholar
Alinejad, Reza. 2010. “An Interview with the Managing Director of the Kurdistan Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.” Jamejam Online. Accessed August 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Amnesty International. 2012. “Annual Report 2012, Iran.” Accessed March 2013. [URL].
Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. 2011. Accessed July 2013. [URL].
Azadaramaki, Taghi. 1378/1999. “Television dar Iran: Abzar-e tose’ ya namad-saz. [Television in Iran: A tool for development or image making].” Nameh ‘olum-e Ejtema’i 141: 3–20.Google Scholar
BBC Persian. “Gilaki zaban-e rasmi-ye jalasat-e shorayeh shahrestan-e rasht shod [Gilaki became the official language of the city of Rasht].” Accessed November 2013. [URL].
Bhatia, Tej K., and William C. Ritchie. 2004. The Handbook of Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Borijan, Maryam. 2013. English in Post-Revolutionary Iran. From Indigenization to Internationlization. Bristol, Buffalo, and Toronto: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Browne, Donald R. 1996. Electronic Media and Indigenous Peoples: A Voice of Our Own? Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar
Bryman, Alan. 2008. Social Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chandler, Daniel, and Rod Munday. 2011. A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford Reference Online. Accessed August 2013. [URL]. DOI logo
Charter. 1992. The European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. Accessed April 2013. [URL].
Chatterjee, Kumkum. 2008. “The Persianization of Itihasa: Performance Narratives and Mughal Political Culture in Eighteenth-century Bengal.” The Journal of Asian Studies 67 (2): 513–543. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cormack, Mike. 2007. “Introduction: Studying Minority Language Media.” In Minority Language Media: Concepts, Critiques and Case Studies, edited by Mike Cormack, and Niamh Hourigan, 1–16. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eurasianet. 2012. “Iran: Survey Looks at Iranians ‘Media Preferences’.” Accessed May 2013. [URL].
Gatson, Sara N. 2011. “The Methods, Politics, and Ethics of Representation in Online Ethnography.” In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Norman K. Denzin, and Yvonna S. Lincoln, 245–275. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Ghanea, Nazila, Binesh Hass. 2011. Seeking Justice and an End to Neglect: Iran’s Minorities Today. Minority Rights Group International. Accessed September 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
González Núñez, Gabriel. 2013. “Translating for Linguistic Minorities in Northern Ireland: A Look at Translation Policy in the Judiciary, Healthcare, and Local Government.” Current Issues in Language Planning 14 (3–4): 474–489. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grossberg, Larry, Ellen A. Wartella, D. Charles Whitney, and J. Macgregor Wise. 2006. Media Making: Mass Media and Popular Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Haddadian-Moghaddam, Esmaeil, and Reine Meylaerts. 2014. “What About Translation? Beyond Persianization as the Language Policy in Iran.” Iranian Studies. Accessed September 2013. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hine, Christine. 2000. Virtual Ethnography. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
ICHR International Campaign for Human Rights. 2011. “Shocking Confidential Report Admits to Iranian TV’s Provocation of Post-Election Uprising.” Accessed March 2013. [URL].
ICL. 2010. “Iran-Constitution.” International Constitutional Law Project Information. Accessed March 2013. [URL].
ICT. 2013. Facts and Figures. Accessed September 2013. [URL].
ISC Iran Statistics Center. 2011. “Gozideh-ye natayeg-e sarshormari omumi-ye nefus va maskan 1390 [A summary of the nation-wide census of 2011]”. Tehran: Iran’s Statistic Center. Accessed May 7. 2014. [URL].
. 2013. Accessed September 2013. [URL].
IWS Internet World Stats. 2013. “Usage and Population Statistic.” Accessed September 2013. [URL].
Kamalipour, Yahya. 2008. “Historical Evolution of Broadcasting.” In Iran Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Islamic Republic, Vol. 1, A-K, edited by M. Kamrava, and M. Dorraj, 83–86. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Kamvar-Bakhshayesh, Javad. 2009. “Habib-e Sabet Pasal.” Faslnameh Motale’at-e Tarikhi 241: 108–139.Google Scholar
Khiabany, Gholam. 2003. “De-Westernizing Media Theory, or Reverse Orientalism: ‘Islamic Communication’ as Theorized by Hamid Mowlana.” Media, Culture and Society 25 (3): 415–422.Google Scholar
. 2010. Iranian Media. The Paradox of Modernity. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Khosravi, Shahram. 2008. Young and Defiant in Tehran. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kia, Mehrdad. 1998. “Persian Nationalism and the Campaign for Language Purification.” Middle Eastern Studies 34 (2): 9–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kurdistan’s Governor-General Office. 2013. “About Kurdistan.” Accessed August 2013. [URL].
McQuail, Denis. 1983. Mass Media Theory. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Meylaerts, Reine. 2011. “Translational Justice in a Multilingual World: An Overview of Translational Regimes.” Meta 56 (4): 743–757. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mohammadi, Majid. 2008. “Propaganda and Indoctrination.” In Iran Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Islamic Republic, Vol. 1, A-K, edited by Manochehr Dorraj, and Mehran Kamrava, 398–403. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Mowlana, Hamid. 1979. “Technology Versus Tradition: Communication in the Iranian Revolution.” Journal of Communication 29 (3): 107–112. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1989. “The Islamization of Iranian television.” Intermedia 7 (5): 35–39.Google Scholar
O’Connell, Eithne. 2007. “Translation and Minority Language Media: Potential and Problems: An Irish Perspective.” In Minority Language Media: Concepts, Critiques and Case Studies, edited by Mike Cormack, and Niamh Hourigan, 212–228. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papan-Matin, Firoozeh (trans.). 2014. “The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (1989 Edition).” Iranian Studies 47 (1): 159–200. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paul, K. 2008. “Kurdish Language: History of the Kurdish Language.” Encyclopedia Iranica, Accessed February 2013. [URL].Google Scholar
Personal Communication. 2013. “Question: Email to Georges Boade.” 10 May.
Pym, Anthony. 2012. “Translation as an Instrument for Multilingual Democracy.” Accessed August 2013. [URL].
Riggins, Stephen Harold. 1992. Ethnic Minority Media: An International Perspective. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Secretary General of High Council for Human Rights. 2013. “Tehran’s Top Human Rights Official Says Some Iranian Laws Need Reforming.” Accessed March 2013. [URL].
Semati, Mehdi. 2008. Media, Culture and Society in Iran: Living with Globalization and the Islamic State. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shahidi, Hossein. 2007. Journalism in Iran: from Mission to Profession. London and New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shargh Daily. 2013. “Tadris-e zaban-e ghomiyatha dar madares olaviyatam ast [Teaching the language of minorities at schools is my priority].” No. 1851, 15 Mehr, 7 October 2013.Google Scholar
Sheyholislami, Jaffer. 2012. “Kurdish in Iran: A Case of Restricted and Controlled Tolerance.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2171: 19–47.Google Scholar
Spolsky, Bernard. 2012. “What is language policy?” In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy, edited by Bernard Spolsky, 3–15. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spooner, Brian. 2012. “Persian, Farsi, Dari, Tajiki: Language Name and Language Policies.” In Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors: The Changing Politics of Language Choice, edited by Harold F. Schiffman, 89–120. Leiden and Boston: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Swietochowski, Tadeusz. 1995. Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Tehranian, M. 1984. “Iran: Broadcasting and Revolution.” Ecquid Novi 5(1): 16–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
UIS UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2011. “Questionnaire on Broadcast Statistics.” Accessed April 2013. [URL].
UN General Assembly. 2009. “The Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Report of the Secretary-general.” UN General Assembly. Accessed March 2013. [URL].
UNESCO Unesco Institute for Statistics. 2014. “Education: Literacy Rate.” Accessed May 2014. [URL].
UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. 2013. Accessed September 2013. [URL].
Valdiva, Angharad(ed). 2003. A Companion to Media Studies. Malden, MA: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Parijs, Philippe. 2011. Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
World Fact Book. 2012. “Middle East: Iran.” Accessed January 2013. [URL].
Cited by (10)

Cited by ten other publications

Jiang, Jianfeng & Huijuan Ma
2022. Book translation policy of China Foreign Languages Bureau from 1949 to 1999: a historical and bibliometric perspective. Perspectives 30:5 ► pp. 760 ff. DOI logo
Tamleh, Hadis, Saeed Rezaei & Nettie Boivin
2022. Family language policy among Kurdish–Persian speaking families in Kermanshah, Iran. Multilingua 41:6 ► pp. 743 ff. DOI logo
Jazini, Alireza
2021. Translation policy. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 7:3 ► pp. 339 ff. DOI logo
Zanettin, Federico
2021. News Media Translation, DOI logo
Azadibougar, Omid
2020. Persian Literature, World Literature. In World Literature and Hedayat’s Poetics of Modernity, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Liu, Lisheng
2020. Translation and public policy: interdisciplinary perspectives and case studies. Perspectives 28:5 ► pp. 810 ff. DOI logo
Azadibougar, Omid & Esmaeil Haddadian-Moghaddam
2019. Chapter 7. The Persian tradition. In A World Atlas of Translation [Benjamins Translation Library, 145], ► pp. 149 ff. DOI logo
Su, Zou
2017. González Núñez, 2016. Translating in Linguistically Diverse Societies: Translation policy in the United Kingdom. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 63:4 ► pp. 616 ff. DOI logo
Valdeón, Roberto A.
2015. Fifteen years of journalistic translation research and more. Perspectives 23:4 ► pp. 634 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2016. Translating in Linguistically Diverse Societies [Benjamins Translation Library, 125], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.