Swedish Iranians or Swedish Persians consist of people of

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 ...

ian nationality who have settled in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, as well as Swedish residents and citizens of Iranian

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...

. As of 2019, there were 80,136 residents of Sweden born in

, as well as 40,883 born in Sweden with at least one Iranian-born parent.

Terminology

Swedish-Iranian is used interchangeably with Swedish-Persian, partly due to the fact that, in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

was known as "Persia". On the

Nowruz Nowruz (, , () , () , () , () , Kurdish language, Kurdish: () , () , () , () , , , , () , , ) is the Iranian or Persian New Year. Historically, it has been observed by Iranian peoples, but is now celebrated by many ...

of 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi asked foreign delegates to use the term Iran, the

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

of the country used since the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

, in formal correspondence. Since then the use of the word "Iran" has become more common in the Western countries. This also changed the usage of the terms for Iranian nationality, and the common adjective for citizens of Iran changed from "Persian" to "Iranian". In 1959, the government of

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the last List of monarchs of Iran, Shah of Iran, ruling from 1941 to 1979. He succeeded his father Reza Shah and ruled the Imperial State of Iran until he was overthrown by the ...

, Reza Shah Pahlavi's son, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably.Yarshater, Ehsa
Persia or Iran, Persian or Farsi
, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) However the issue is still debated today. Majd, Hooman, ''The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran'', by Hooman Majd,

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the followin ...

, September 23, 2008, , 9780385528429. p
161
/ref> There is a tendency among Swedish Iranians to categorize themselves as "Persian" rather than "Iranian", mainly to dissociate themselves from the Islamic regime of Iran which has been in charge since the

1979 Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

, and also to distinguish themselves as being of Persian ethnicity, which comprise about 65% of Iran's population. While the majority of Iranians come from Persian backgrounds, there is a significant number of non-Persian Iranians such as Azeris and

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

within the Iranian community of Sweden, leading some scholars to believe that the label "Iranian" is more inclusive, since the label "Persian" excludes non-Persian minorities. The ''

Collins English Dictionary The ''Collins English Dictionary'' is a printed and online dictionary of English. It is published by HarperCollins in Glasgow. It was first published in 1979. Corpus The dictionary uses language research based on the Collins Corpus, which is ...

'' uses a variety of similar and overlapping definitions for the terms "Persian" and "Iranian".

Demographics

There are approximately 63,828 people born in Iran living in Sweden today, as well as 28,600 people born in Sweden with at least one parent born in Iran. They are one of Sweden's largest immigrant groups, accounting for about 1.7% of the population. The very first wave of Iranian refugees consisted of 5,000 Iranian refugees who fled to Sweden in 1979-1980 most of them were middle-aged, middle-class Pahlavi supporters who were opposing the

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

. When the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

broke out in 1980, almost 20,000 Iranian citizens found asylum in Sweden. Second generation Iranian Swedes are well-represented in higher education and in some well paying professions like dentistry and engineering. About 60% percent of Swedish Iranians go on to higher education – more than the Swedish average (45%). Iranian culture with its emphasis on education may be part of the reason for this. Becoming an engineer or a doctor is a mantra in many families. Abundantly represented minorities amongst the Swedish Iranians, like in other Iranian diaspora nations are

Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis (; , ), Azeris (, ), or Azerbaijani Turks (, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group living mainly in the Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan. They are predomin ...

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

and

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

Notable Iranians in Sweden

* Snoh Aalegra, singer and songwriter * Mana Aghaee, poet and writer * Minoo Akhtarzand, governor of

Jönköping County Jönköping County () is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Halland, Västra Götaland, Östergötland, Kalmar and Kronoberg. The total county population was 356,291 inhabitants in September 2017. The capita ...

* Milad Alami, film director * Poya Asbaghi, football manager * William Atashkadeh, professional footballer * Hanif Bali, MP and part of the party executive of the

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( , , M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative* * * * * List of political parties in Sweden, political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free ma ...

* Sean Banan, singer, comedian and entertainer * Arash Bayat, footballer * Hanni Beronius, beauty queen and Miss Universe Sweden 2012 * Cameron Cartio, singer *

Akira Corassani Hamid Khorassani (; born August 27, 1982), professionally known as Akira Corassani, is a Swedish former professional mixed martial artist who most recently competed in the Featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A pro ...

, UFC fighter *

Ashk Dahlén Ashk Peter Dahlén (born 3 June 1972 in Tafresh, Iran) is a Swedish scholar, linguist, Iranologist, translator, and associate professor ( docent) in Persian language at Uppsala University. He is quadrilingual in Swedish, Persian, English la ...

, scholar, linguist, translator * Reza Khelili Dylami, politician * Ali Esbati, politician * Athena Farrokhzad, poet * Rashid Farivar, politician * Mohammad Fazlhashemi, professor in History of Ideas, Umeå University * Azita Ghahreman, poet, translator, writer, member of the

International PEN PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

* Saman Ghoddos, international footballer* * Ali Ghodsi, businessman * Adam Hemati, footballer for Persepolis F.C. * Jasmine Kara, singer and songwriter * Arash Labaf, platinum-selling artist * Lina Leandersson, actress * Janet Leon, singer * Lasse Lindroth, comedian and actor * Parisa Liljestrand, Minister of Culture. * Reza Madadi, professional MMA fighter and convicted criminal. * Jila Mossaed, poet, member of the Swedish Academy, Chair No. 15 * Babak Najafi, film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer *

Amin Nazari Amin Nazari (; born 26 April 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for the Philippines national team. His brother Omid is also a footballer who used to play for Malmö FF. Club career Malmö FF Nazari began playing fo ...

, professional football player *

Omid Nazari Omid Nazari (, born 29 April 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for One Taguig of the Philippines Football League. Born in Sweden, he has represented the Iran national team. Career Club career Malmö FF Nazari mad ...

, professional football player* * Shima Niavarani, actress * Bahar Pars, actress *

Trita Parsi Trita Parsi (, born ?21 July 1974) is an Iranian-born Swedish writer and activist, and the co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, as well as the founder and former president of the National Iran ...

, founder and president of the

National Iranian American Council The National Iranian American Council (NIAC; ) is a lobbying group widely viewed as the de facto "Iran Lobby" in Washington, D.C. due to its history of lobbying for stances on behalf of, and aligned with, Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran. NIAC ...

* Nahid Persson Sarvestani, film director * Zinat Pirzadeh, comedian * Laleh Pourkarim, singer-songwriter * Romina Pourmokhtari, Minister for the Environment. * Arash Pournouri, music manager * Daniel Rahimi, professional Ice hockey player * Eddie Razaz, singer * Farhad Saeidi, co-founder and President of COMSOL AB * Behrang Safari, Swedish international footballer * Ilya Salmanzadeh, music producer * Nima Sanandaji, scientist and author * Ardalan Shekarabi, politician * Maryam Yazdanfar,

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

politician * Sara Zahedi, mathematician and winner of

European Mathematical Society The European Mathematical Society (EMS) is a European organization dedicated to the development of mathematics in Europe. Its members are different mathematical societies in Europe, academic institutions and individual mathematicians. The curren ...

prize *

Nina Zanjani Nina Nasr Zanjani (born 1981) is a Swedish actress. She played one of the two lead roles in Helena Bergström's directorial debut '' Mind the Gap'' as the daughter Yasmin. Early life Zanjani was born in 1981 in Tehran. When she was six or sev ...

, actress * Mika Zibanejad, professional Ice hockey player

References

External links

*
Iranian-Swedish Community Classifieds Website in Persian (Farsi) Language
{{Iranian diaspora Muslim communities in Europe Middle Eastern diaspora in Sweden Iran–Sweden relations Iranian diaspora in Sweden

Terminology

Demographics

Notable Iranians in Sweden

See also

References

External links