On April 28, 2023, the Iran 1400 spoke with Dr. Brenda Shaffer about her book Iran is More than Persia: Ethnic Politics in Iran. Dr. Shaffer shared statistics on ethnic minorities in Iran and touched on the challenges of properly documenting this, a challenge her book sought to solve. She discussed the ever-changing politics related to ethnic minorities and the obstacles they encounter from the Iranian government. During the Q&A, Dr. Shaffer answered a variety of questions, ranging from how the promotion of ethnic minorities has evolved since the inception of the Islamic Republic to what role Kurdish identity plays in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
Prof. Brenda Shaffer is an international energy and foreign policy specialist, focusing on politics and energy in the Caspian region, energy security policies, European energy security, ethnic politics in Iran, and Eastern Mediterranean energy. She is a faculty member at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Senior Advisor for Energy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center.
