I don’t see how Iran’s multiethnic populace disqualifies it’s claim on a national identity (Shia Islam).
On the wiki page for multinational states, I find reasonable examples (Russia, Belgium, UK), and Iran is absent. [1] Does this have to do with the Kurdish nation claiming territory within Iran?
Not trying to say you’re wrong, just trying to understand the terminology better.
Apparently ~1/2 of Iranian citizens claim Farsi as their mother tongue, with many citizens claiming Turkic dialects, Kurdish, and "Linguistically-Iranian languages" that are not Farsi (in my mind, this is comparable to Gaeilge, Scots, Welsh within the UK).
Then again, I'm sure that identifying as an atheist or non-Shia Muslim in Iran is not in most citizens' best interests, regardless of their underlying beliefs.
I don't have a point or conclusion, I do think it's a reasonable thing to discuss. Ultimately, "nation" is an human construct, the and the people who have the authority to claim it are the Iranian people.
The Kurds (who compose a significant minority within Iran) would reject the nationalities "Iranian" or "Persian", I think; even more so than Catalans, Basque, or Galcian peoples would reject "Spanish". I don't know if other minorities comprising Iran would, too. It's an interesting question to ponder, though.
Anyways, thank you all for this pedantic stroll, it made me learn more about this part of the world than I probably would have, otherwise. :P
Switzerland, Britain, ...
Strictly speaking, you need to consult the dictionary.
noun: a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory: leading industrialized nations.
Iran checks multiple boxes on that list.
As for US, is it really a nation or is it a corporate spin off? Curious, too, how those 13 bars ended up as 13 "states"..
Wikipedia gives a more narrow definition of nation-state than you (but English dictionaries by their nature tend to give broad definitions) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_state
Strictly speaking, Iran is not a nation-state. It is a multiethnic state.
The way to avoid this confusion is to write ‘state’ (problem here is that this word also refers to American states) or ‘country’ (I think people might feel like this word is not sufficiently sophisticated?).
However the error is understandable as it is particularly common in discussions about cybersecurity (or national security, where ‘national’ means the USA). It’s especially silly in those cases as some typical US adversaries (Iran, Russia) are states which are not nation states.