''Aghazadeh'' () ( Kurdish: آقازاده) is a term that entered the

colloquialism Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Kurdistan region Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous Federal regions of Iraq, federal region of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurds, Kurdish-majority governorates of Arabs, Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate ...

in the 1990s to describe the children of

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

who emerge as the men of means and influence, usually in a way that resembles familial

nepotism Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...

and

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

. This includes utilization of the positions within the hierarchy to gain inside information and preferential status which results in replication of wealth and power across generations and means "fewer top positions are available to talented people without family connections". The phenomenon is exemplified with family members of high-ranking officials in Iran such as Hashemi Rafsanjani, Nategh Nouri and Vaez Tabasi. In the

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous Federal regions of Iraq, federal region of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurds, Kurdish-majority governorates of Arabs, Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate ...

its children of high-ranking Kurdish government,

KDP KDP may refer to: Businesses *Kindle Direct Publishing, an e-publisher that bans without reason *Keurig Dr Pepper, a beverage conglomerate Political parties * Karpatendeutsche Partei (KdP; Carpathian Germany Party), Czechoslovakia * Katipunan ...

and PUK officials. In 2017, ''Zhen-e Khoob'' ( meaning good genes), a new term was coined and became synonymous with ''Aghazadeh''s and "the privileges they enjoy". The word Aghazadeh, which is used as a surname in Iran and Azerbaijan, is made up of two words Agha and Zadeh, where Agha is an Azerbaijani word meaning sir and the suffix zadeh means child. Respected people, usually merchants, were labeled Agha by people and as such their children became the bearers of Aghazadeh as their surname in order to point out that they were the children of the Agha.

References

Persian words and phrases Class-related slurs Political terminology of Iran Corruption in Iran Nepotism 1990s neologisms {{Iran-culture-stub