Fars, Southwestern

The identity of the Southwestern Fars is rooted in the oldest history of Persia: Fars province was the birthplace of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, with capitals at Pasargadae and later Persepolis, burned by Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC. It is from this region that the very name “Fars” comes, the origin of the word “Farsi” used to designate the Persian language.

Over the centuries, the local dialects of the province's southwest diverged from the Persian that would become the national language, preserving older forms of speech among the inland villages. Thus, the Southwestern Fars today carry a distinct way of speaking within the very land that gave rise to the broader Persian identity.

Life centers on manual labor and the land. Many families weave carpets, a craft of long tradition in Fars province, alongside farming and small-scale livestock raising. Others have found work in the more modern sectors of the regional economy, such as the oil industry, pharmaceutical production, and food processing.

They live mostly in villages and mid-sized towns in the central part of the province, maintaining close family and community ties. This combination of traditional trades and wage labor marks the daily life of a people who have managed to adapt without losing their bond with their native land.

The predominant faith among the Southwestern Fars is Shia Islam, Iran’s official branch, deeply intertwined with national and regional identity. Religious practice follows the calendar of Shia feasts and mourning observances, and the local mosque holds a central place in the communal life of the villages.

As is common across much of inland Iran, the Islamic faith blends with popular customs and devotion to local holy figures, reinforcing a sense of belonging that unites religion, family, and native land into a single identity. A Christian presence among the Southwestern Fars is practically nonexistent: almost no one in this people group has ever had personal contact with a follower of Jesus Christ, and Islam remains the only religious horizon known in the villages of the province’s interior.

There is little to no Christian material available in the Southwestern Fars’ own dialect. Most of them, however, also understand Farsi, Iran’s national and trade language, which opens a real door: where Scripture and Christian materials already exist in Farsi, they can be understood by this people, even without a translation specific to their local speech.

The Southwestern Fars live far from almost all followers of Christ in Iran: Iranian believers are mostly Farsi speakers concentrated in Tehran, far from the interior of Fars province. This geographic distance adds to the lack of Christian material in the local dialect, making a first encounter with the gospel rare in the villages where this people live.

As in other regions of inland Iran, families who depend on the loom, farming, and livestock face the typical instability of rural work, alongside the search for opportunities in the newer sectors of the local economy, such as industry and food processing. The greatest need, however, is spiritual: the near total absence of churches and nearby Christian community means that most of the Southwestern Fars have never had a real chance to learn the gospel in their own village.