‘We are Iranians’: Rediscovering the history of African slavery in IranPosted in Anthropology, Arts, History, Media Archive, Slavery on 2016-05-17 01:59Z by Steven |
‘We are Iranians’: Rediscovering the history of African slavery in Iran
Middle East Eye
2016-05-09
ST CATHARINES, Canada – Behnaz Mirzai’s students often say her office is like a museum.
With shards of ancient pottery recovered from the mountains of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province, colourful vases from Isfahan, and tribal masks from Zanzibar adorning the shelves, it is easy to see why.
Mirzai has spent nearly 20 years studying the origins of the African diaspora in Iran, including the history and eventual abolition of slavery in her native country.
It was a topic that few knew about in the late 1990s, when she began her research, and one that remains unfamiliar to many today.
“Living in Iran for all my life, we had never heard about slavery in Iran,” Mirzai told Middle East Eye from Brock University, where she now works as an associate professor of Middle Eastern history…
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