Internal social cleavages and their political consequences: A case study of the Arab ethnic

Ethnic groups in Iran have internal social cleavages that affect their political life. The Arabs living in Iran are no exception to this rule and despite their linguistic and religious unity, they have some internal social cleavages that have political consequences at different levels. Examining these cleavages and their political consequences is the main concern of this article. Therefore, in this regard, we raised the question, what kind of social cleavages do the Arabs living in Iran have within their ethnicity, and what political consequences did this issue have?

This article is written using descriptive-analytical method and based on library sources and interview technique.

To reach this goal, we tried to investigate the historical process of intra-ethnic cleavages and its political consequences with the approach of historical sociology and using the technique of library studies along with interviews with researchers. The research results showed traditional and modern social cleavage such as "Tribal cleavage"; "City-Tribe cleavage"; "generational cleavage"; and "gender cleavage" along with some political cleavages such as "ideological and organizational cleavage" which can be categorized as "modernity" and "convergence-divergence" cleavage. These cleavages among the Arabs have caused their political identity should be plural.

From the beginning of the formation of ethnic movements, one of the important factors in the failure of some separatist currents in bringing all ethnic groups together is the existence of intra-ethnic pluralism and diverse intra-ethnic political currents.