Iranian Australians

Iranian Australians or Persian Australians are Australians who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship. In 2021 they numbered 81,119, according to the 2021 Census

Terminology Iranian-Australian is used interchangeably with Persian-Australian,Racial and Ethnic Relations in America, Carl Leon Bankston,"Therefore, Turkish and Iranian (Persian) Americans, who are Muslims but not ethnically Arabs, are often mistakenly..", Salem Press, 2000 partly due to the fact that, in the Western world, Iran was known as "Persia". On the Nowruz of 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi asked foreign delegates to use the term Iran, the endonym of the country used since the Sasanian Empire, 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 Shah Pahlavi, Reza Shah Pahlavi's son, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably. 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, 23 September 2008, , 9780385528429. p. 161

History

The first known Iranian immigrant to Australia and New Zealand was Hamed Mortis () born in 1867, who as an 11 year old was based in Barrabool, VIC in 1878Mortis HamedMuseum of History NSW and then got naturalised in NSW on 20 October 1883.Mortis Hamed Museum of History NSW Unfortunately, in 1886, as a confectioner living in New Zealand he was sentenced to 14 days labour at Auckland Prison, details about his sentence can be seen in the table below.Table Image listing sentenceExtracts from New Zealand Gazette - New Zealand Police Gazette, Volume X, Issue 5, 3 March 1886, Page 40

FullnameDate of BirthGaol and Place TriedDate triedOffenceSentenceTradePhysical Description Mortis Hamed alias Ahmad 1867 Auckland February 1, 1886 Indecent language 14 days labour Confectioner 5 ft height, dark complexion, black hair, dark brown eyes, large nose, medium mouth, medium chin, small pox marks on both arms

The only other early Iranian immigrant to NSW was Mohamad Ameen Khan (), who was residing in Gunnedah on 8 October 1898 and became naturalised on 29 June 1899.

Few Iranians migrated to Victoria in the nineteenth century, with only seven recorded in the 1891 census. From 1950 to 1977, the first wave of immigration from Iran to Australia occurred, but it was relatively insignificant in terms of the number of immigrants. Annually, few thousand tourists entered Australia which only a few hundreds were immigrants during this period, mostly university students who decided to stay. The vast majority of Iran's emigrants left their homeland just after the 1979 Islamic revolution which was the end of 2500 years of monarchy. For the period 1978–1980, the average number of Iranians entering Australia as immigrants annually increased to more than 5,000. From the period 1980–1988, there was a strong trend of emigration to Australia. Since 2000, there has been a wave of Iranian migration to Australia, especially engineers and doctors, through skilled migration program.

Iranians speak Persian and also Azerbaijani Turkish, Kurdish, and some other Persian languages and dialects are spoken in different regions of Iran. They practice the Iranian culture, which includes Nowruz. Along religious lines, both Muslim and non-Muslim Iranians reside in Australia. Non-Muslim Iranians include Iranian Christians (mainly Armenian and Assyrian), Iranian Baháʼís, Iranian Mandaeans, Iranian Jews and Iranian Zoroastrians. The Bureau of Statistics reports that at the 2011 census the major religious affiliations amongst Iran-born were Islam (12 686) and Baháʼí (6269). Of the Iran-born, 18.4 per cent stated 'No Religion', which was lower than that of the total Australian population (22.3 per cent), and 9.4 per cent did not state a religion.

Iranian Australian census In 1991, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures revealed an Iranian population of 12,914. In 2004, 18,798 people in Australia claim to be of Iranian ancestry.

Notable people

Soheil Abedian, founder and CEO of Sunland Group Arman Abrahimzadeh, domestic violence campaigner Shervin Adeli, futsal player Hoda Afshar, artist Mojean Aria, actor Daniel Arzani, footballer Sam Bashiry, entrepreneur Salah Choheili, Mandaean priest Donya Dadrasan, singer Sam Dastyari, senator for NSW Michael Denkha, actor Nabil Elderkin (mother is Iranian), film and music video director Kamran Eshraghian, engineer Alireza Faghani, football referee Amir Farid, pianist Salme Geransar, actress Zarah Ghahramani, writer Anise K, songwriter Shokufeh Kavani, painter Beejan Land, actor Joey Mead King, model, VJ, and TV and events host (Iranian father) Ashkan Mokhtarian, MMA fighter Granaz Moussavi, poet, film maker Anoushiravan Nourian, boxer Rita Panahi, opinion columnist Phoenix Raei, actor Ali Pahlavan, pop singer Tina Rahimi, boxer Nabi Saleh, founder of Gloria Jean's Coffees Hassan Shahsavan, Greco-Roman wrestler Farzad Tarash, freestyle wrestler Hossein Valamanesh, artist

Iranian Australians

Bron en licentie