Khomeini's 1979 Fatwa: A Turning Point in the Conflict Between Iran and Its Kurdish Minority

The new Islamic Republic, however, was not willing to cede control. Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers viewed the Kurdish movement as a threat to the nation's integrity and a potential hotbed for foreign interference. They were suspicious of Kurdish political parties, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and Komala, which they saw as secular and leftist, and therefore antithetical to the new Islamic order.