Sattari people

Sattari people (Pardarian: مردم ستاری, tr. Mārdom-e Sattāri; Rahelian أهل الستاري, tr. Nās al'Sattari) or Citizens of the Union (Pardarian: شهروندان اتحادیه, tr. Šahrvand-ân-ye Ettehad; Rahelian: مُوَاطِنُون الاتحاد, tr. Muwāṭinūn al-Ittiḥād) is the official umbrella demonym (politonym) for the population of the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics. It exists in parallel to the more popular and common Zorasani. The term was officially adopted on the 1 January 1980 with Zorasani unification and is use primarily in official state documents and nomenclature.

The People of Sattari Monument, was built atop the historic Ain Hadir border crossing between Khazestan and Irvadistan.

Origin

The origins of term are widely disputed among historians as prior to its formal adoption in 1980, the Pan-Zorasanist term varied between "Zorasani" and the individual demonyms for the constituent parts of the pre-defined state. According to government records, the term Sattari as a politonym was devised as a temporary "unifying term for the peoples of the Union.” These documents further stated, that “until such time the universal identification of the citizenry is that of Zorasani, we must beat back the continued ignorant terms Pardarian, Rahelian and such, proclaiming the peoples of the Union, the people of Sattari is therefore key.”

Further to the government rationale, was the significant return of the Sattari personality cult. In celebration of unification, the new government contracted the construction of hundreds of monuments dedicated to him, songs, poems and a printed media campaign, leading some to conclude that the major driving force behind the adoption of Sattari as a politonym was part of the wider resurrection of the cult.

Between 1980 and 1990, the term Sattari was used in all official documentation, including the census. As the Union does not recognise ethnicity, during this period, the population was forced in part to fully identify as Sattari, from 1990 onward, the census began to include the option of Zorasani, which over the preceding decades grew in popularity. By the 2012 census, 98% of citizens identified as Zorasani over Sattari, though the term continues to be used in government documents and affairs.

According to Said Abdullah-Ali, a prominent historian on post-unification Zorasani history, “the decision to introduce the identifier ‘Sattari’ over ‘Zorasani’ after 1980 was in many ways ingenious. The state knew that opposition to unification existed among the “Rahelian” and other minorities, so by introducing something complete different, yet all-encompassing while the Zorasani identity was fostered and nurtured, ensured that the Pardarian and Rahelian and so on, were bound together in equal measure.”

Today, the term is used interchangeably with Zorasani in everyday life.

Nationality and ethnicity in Zorasan

Main article: Demographics of Zorasan

Throughout its post-unification history, Zorasan has confronted the issue of nationality and ethnicity in a manner that has not changed in over 40 years. Prior to unification, the Sattarist approach to these two issues was to dismiss them outright. Ethnicity and nationality according to Sattarist thought are Euclean concepts, rooted in racialism and racism, ostensibly to support colonialism, through a divide and conquer based policy. Sattarist thought then saw the abolition of ethnicity and race as the “first step toward establishing a utopia of social harmony and peace.”

In 1981, King Tirdad III was renamed King Khalid ibn al-Mughira, with the Union Institute for Antiquities, claiming he was the first Rahelian Shah of the Sorsanid Empire.

From the end of the Pardarian Civil War in 1950, through to 1980, the Sattarist regime in the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran, ceaselessly attacked the notion of “nations” and “separate peoples” within the borders of Zorasan. It outright rejected the concept of Rahelia, describing the region as just a “geographical expression that provides no basis for an independent identity or existence.” Historians also note that the relative success of the post-unification period was that as Rahelians saw any nascent “Rahelian identity” crushed, they could see the same for the Pardarian, Kexri, Togoti etc. The UKP and subsequently the UZIR, actively refurnished national history (see: Historical revisionism in Zorasan), describing every pre-colonial state as “Zorasani”, rather than Pardarian, despite the latter’s dominant role for millennia. Textbooks, publications, thesis, museum exhibitions have all since described the Pardarian-led classical era empires, and post-Heavenly Dominion dynasties as Zorasani, going as far as either fabricate contributions or roles of Rahelians (primarily), or greatly enhancing them. The Union Institute for Antiquities, during the 1980s went as far as rewrite the history of the Sorsanid Empire, claiming its ruling dynasty including Kings of Pardarian, Rahelian, Togoti and Kexri heritage.

While the Sattarist regime rewrote history, its approach to culture was less severe, opting instead to promote a fusion of the present cultures into a singular unifying expression. Multiculturalism was promoted as a means of advertising “Zorasani culture as one made up of many, who’s positive contributions produce the most fulfilling in Coius.” The slogan, “one people, equal cultures” and its corresponding educational and public media campaign (1950s to 1960s) sought to display the cultural differences as merely the result of geographical distance, “cultural differences has the same weight and importance of linguistic dialects.”

However, during the 1970s to the 1990s and since 2008, cultural differences have been steadily diminished by the state, which saw any internal cultural “Sattarist by content, national by nature” as a loophole that would endanger the “stability and social harmony of the Union.” Music, poetry, publications, television and film were and remain highly constricted and methodically censored toward the establishment of a “universal, fraternal culture.” The Union Chamber of Culture, Union Chamber of Music and the Union Chamber of Film and Television are all subordinate to the State Commission for Societal Defence and play key roles in the sanitisation of cultural products.

Zorasani people

Main article: Zorasanis

As stated above, the use of Sattari as the umbrella politonym was done while the state promoted and fostered the Zorasani identity. Between 1950 and 1992, only Sattari was permitted on the official state census for identification, though during this period, the state worked ceaselessly to dimmish ethnic identity while promoting the Zorasani identity. The state did this first by continuing the 18th and 19th century effort of wedding Zorasani identity to a shared 2,300-year history, religion, linguistic similarities and Sattarist ideological tenets. The daily rejection of Rahelia as a unique homeland or entity coupled with the already weak Rahelian identity proved successful over the next four decades. The concurrent Normalisation, which dismantled the Rahelian tribal system, Togoti nomadism and other minority-ethnic cultural norms also played prominent roles in the establishment of the unified identity.

In 1992, Zorasani was listed an option on the census for the first time, alongside Sattari. 64% of respondents identified as Zorasani and the remainder as Sattari; it was found that those who identified as Sattari were generally older citizens who identified with his rule in Pardaran or his generation of leaders. In 2002, the number increased to 81% identifying as Zorasani and in 2012, this number reached 96%.

In 2011, the Nationality and Citizenship Law was introduced, and regulates nationality within the Union. An individual obtains nationality either by birth or when at least one parent is of Zorasani nationality. Naturalisation requires a series of measures, mostly political in nature. Individuals holding Zorasani nationality are citizens of the Union, and the Citizen Identity Card is the mandatory and official form of identification for nationals of the Union.