Deaf Iranian

Iran's Deaf community is a linguistic and cultural minority united by Iranian Sign Language (Zaban Eshareh Irani, ZEI), which researchers have proposed calling 'Esharani'. ZEI grew up independently in Iran's own deaf schools: Jabbar Baghcheban opened the first school for deaf children in Tabriz in 1924 and devised a phonetic hand alphabet, his daughter Samineh Baghcheban later led the National Organization for the Welfare of the Deaf, and the first ZEI dictionary appeared in 1980. ZEI is unrelated to the Arab sign languages and has regional varieties such as Kermanshahi and Tehrani; an older, endangered Qahveh Khaneh ('teahouse') Sign Language survives among elderly signers in Tehran. Deaf Iranians come from every ethnic group, Persian, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Lur, Baloch and Arab, but share a Deaf identity formed in schools, associations and sports clubs. Iran has one of the world's highest rates of hereditary hearing loss, linked to consanguineous marriage.

Deaf social life centres on Deaf associations, provincial Deaf NGOs, the National Network of Iranian Deaf NGOs and sport; Iran's deaf athletes ranked first at the 2024 Asia-Pacific Deaf Games and won the 2025 World Deaf Futsal Championship. Smartphones, video calls, Instagram and Telegram or Eitaa channels carry Deaf news and sign-language content. International Deaf Week in late September is marked with official events; the 2025 slogan was 'realising the social life of the deaf by expanding sign language'. Most deaf children are born to hearing parents, who are often urged towards speech training and cochlear implants rather than sign. Marriage within the Deaf community is common.

Deaf Iranians share the Shia, or for Kurdish, Baloch and Turkmen families Sunni, identity of their families, but the oral core of Shia practice is largely closed to them: Friday sermons, Quran recitation, rowzeh-khani mourning chants and Muharram preaching are rarely interpreted, apart from a few signed religious segments on state television. Deaf people take part in the visible side of religion, mourning processions, shrine visits, votive meals and the Ramadan fast, but religious knowledge is often fragmentary and identity rests more on family belonging than on informed belief. Shia jurisprudence treats deaf people as fully obligated, yet no structured religious teaching in sign language exists.

There is no known Bible translation in Iranian Sign Language. The JESUS film was released in Persian Sign Language in September 2021 and is distributed on micro SD cards and online; it is the main Christian resource in the language. Spoken Persian resources, including the full Persian Bible, audio and satellite TV, are largely inaccessible to signers. No Deaf church or Deaf-specific ministry is known inside Iran.