Saqqez can be one of the coldest places in all Kurdistan. It can be in the winter at Saqqez.
Iran has the second-largest population of Kurds in the world. (Only Turkey has a larger Kurdish population.) Kurds are the third-largest ethnic group in Iran, and only the Persians and Azerbaijani people have larger populations. Iranian Kurdistan is next to Iran's international borders with Turkey, Armenia, and Iraq.
There are different estimates of how many Kurds are in Iran. In the "Routledge Handbook on the Kurds", scholars write that there are about 7 million Kurds in Iran. The Kurdish population is about one tenth of Iran's whole population. In "The Kurds: An Encyclopedia", there scholars write that there are between eight and ten million Kurds in Iran. The Kurdish population is between 11% and 15% of Iran's whole population.
Between five and seven million Kurds live in Iranian Kurdistan. Most are Sunni, but about 1.5 million are Shia Kermanshahi Kurds, who have not interest in Kurdistan becoming independent.
Not all of Iran's Kurds live in Iranian Kurdistan, and many Kurds live in Khorasan Province. There are Kurdish populations in the cities of Khorasan, where there are many Kurdish villages spread over . There may now be about two million Kurds in Khorasan, and many of them speak Kurmanji Kurdish. Most of the Kurds of Khorasan live in villages, but there are also populations in Nishapur, Mashhad, Sabzevar, Quchan, Bojnoord, and Esfarayen.
In the past, the land of Kurdistan was in two parts. From the 17th century, one part was inside the Ottoman Empire, and the other part was Iranian Kurdistan. Iranian Kurdistan was inside Iran.
Many of the Kurds in Khorasan Province are descendants of the tens of thousands of Kurds whom Abbas the Great, the shah of Iran, moved from Iranian Kurdistan to the borders of Afghanistan and the land that is now Turkmenistan. Shah Abbas's government did this between 1598 and 1610. The government had moved many Kurds there in the 16th century, in order to make the Kurds fight against the Uzbek people who were then attacking Iran.
After the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911, the Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan's towns supported the new system of local government, but the Kurdish tribes in the countryside supported the shah ("the king of Iran").
The armies of the Russian Empire took control of Iranian Kurdistan in World War I, during the Persian Campaign. The February Revolution in Russia meant that the Russian provisional government no longer wanted to control Iranian Kurdistan. Nikolai Baratov, a Russian army general acting for the government, made an agreement with the local Iranian Kurds. They would attack the Ottoman army and help the Russians, and the Russian government would help set up an independent Kurdish state.
When the Ottoman Empire fell apart after World War I, the British Empire and the French Empire took parts of Ottoman Kurdistan. Although the governments in Britain and France said that a Kurdish state could be set up in Turkish Kurdistan, they did not say that Iranian Kurdistan should join it. Britain and France did not want to anger Iran, and they made no plans for Iranian Kurds to be part of a new Kurdish state. Iran kept Iranian Kurdistan.
At a Kurdish congress, Sheikh Ubeydullah brought together Kurds from Iranian Kurdistan and Kurds from the parts of Kurdistan in the Ottoman Empire. Sheikh Ubeydullah worked for the unification of Iranian Kurdistan with Ottoman Kurdistan, and for political independence in Kurdistan.
Iran's Islamic Republic stopped letting foreign scholars travel into Iran in the 1980s. Because of this, people outside Iran do not know much about Kurds in Iran or about Iranian Kurdistan.
The Iranian government is fighting a slow battle with the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). The fighting has increased in 2005 and takes place around the Qandil Mountains and the international border with Iraq. The PJAK started as a branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from Turkish Kurdistan.
The United Nations says that the Iranian government oppresses Kurds in Iran. The Iranian government assassinated Iranian Kurdish leaders living in Europe in the 1980s. Asma Jahangir told the United Nations Human Rights Council that almost half of all the political prisoners in Iran were Kurds. One fifth of all the people executed in Iran during 2016 were Kurds.
Kurds in Iran speak a number of Kurdish languages. Kurdish language is the most important sign of Kurdish cultural identity in Iran. Kurdish is an Iranian language and an Indo-European language like the Persian language, but people that speak Persian do not understand Kurdish.
Most Kurds in Iran speak the Sorani dialect. Kurds in the Kurdish cities of Mahabad, Saqqez, Sanandaj, and Marivan speak Sorani. Kurds also speak Sorani in Arbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Kirkuk in nearby Iraqi Kurdistan. In Kermanshah, Kurds speak the Kirmanshani dialect. In the Lorestan area, the Lurs people speak the Luri language. The Luri language has similarities with the Kirmanshani dialect. Kermanshah is next to Lorestan. Around the city of Paveh and some other towns, Kurds speak the Gorani language.
Poetry is important for Iranian Kurds, because their position is made difficult by the ideology and oppression of Iran. The culture of Iranian Kurdistan is close to Iraqi Kurdistan's culture. Modern Kurdish language poetry in Iranian Kurdistan came from the Kurdish poetry of modern Iraqi Kurdistan and from modern Persian language poetry. The most important poets are Sware Ilkhanizadeh, Fateh Sheikh, Ali Hasaniani and Solayman Chireh. After the Republic of Mahabad fell in 1946, three important Iranian Kurdish poets moved to Iraqi Kurdistan: Abdurrahman Sharafkandi (known as Hazhar); Muhammad Amin Shiekholeslami (known as Hemin); and Khalid Hisami (known as Hedi). Iraqi Kurdish poetry was most important for Iranian Kurdish poets in the 1980s. From the 1990s, newer poets like Azad Rostami and Behzad Kordestani used newer forms in their poetry. Omid Warzandeh, Raza Alipour, Kambiz Karimi, Jalal Malaksha and Saleh Suzani are now among the poets of Iranian Kurdistan.
Some Iranian Kurdish writers have written novels which are important to Kurdish literature. Writers have published novels in Iraqi Kurdistan as well as in Iranian Kurdistan. Ata Nahayee, Qader Hedayati, Shahram Qawami and Kamran Hamidi are among these writers. Many Iranian Kurds have worked to improve Kurdish culture in Iraqi Kurdistan. In Iraqi Kurdistan, written works by Iranian Kurdish writers are very common. Publishers in Arbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan make Sorani Kurdish translations of works written in other Kurdish dialects.
Most of the provinces of Iran on the country's international borders (with the inclusion of Iranian Kurdistan) have lower rates of literacy than the average for Iran. Before Iran's Literacy Movement Organization () started, it was mostly madrasas and other Islamic schools that worked for the education of the population in Iranian Kurdistan. These schools did not teach much science or technology, and the teachers taught religion and literature. In Iran, literacy is a synonym for being able to read and write in the Persian language. (Persian is the official language of Iran and the only language used in government schools.) Because of this, many Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan cannot read or write in Kurdish. Many Kurdish children do not learn Kurdish, and tutors and private schools are important in teaching Kurdish language and literature.