''Aghazadeh'' ( fa, آقازاده, lit=born to '' Agha'' or

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Great B ...

-born) (

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

: آقازاده) is a term that entered the

colloquialism Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the style (sociolinguistics), linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom norm ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and Kurdistan region in the 1990s to describe the children of

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

who emerge as the men of means and influence, usually in a way that resembles familial

nepotism Nepotism is an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...

and

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

. This includes utilization of the positions within the hierarchy to gain

inside information Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

and

preferential In psychology, economics and philosophy, preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between alternatives. For example, someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are central to decision theo ...

status which results in replication of wealth and power across generations and means "fewer top positions are available to talented people without family connections". The phenomenon is exemplified with family members of high-ranking officials in Iran such as Hashemi Rafsanjani, Nategh Nouri and Vaez Tabasi. In the Kurdistan Region its children of high-ranking Kurdish government,

KDP KDP may refer to: * Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands) * Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraqi Kurdistan * Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran of Iranian Kurdistan * Korea Democratic Party * Khmer Democratic Party *Kappa Del ...

and PUK officials. In 2017, ''Zhen-e Khoob'' ( fa, ژن خوب meaning good genes), a new term was coined and became synonymous with ''Aghazadeh''s and "the privileges they enjoy". The word Aghazadeh, which is used as a surname in Iran and Azerbaijan, is made up of two words Agha and Zadeh, where Agha is an Azerbaijani word meaning sir and the suffix zadeh means child. This last name is common in the state of Azerbaijan but also in Qom, Iran, and all those who have this last name come from one of these areas and usually from respected merchant families.

References

Persian words and phrases Class-related slurs Political terminology of Iran Corruption in Iran Nepotism 1990s neologisms {{Iran-culture-stub