نژاد

The word is technically neutral but carries baggage. In the early 20th century, Iranian state nationalism under the Pahlavi dynasty leaned heavily on the framing of an "Aryan race" (نژاد آریایی, nezhâd-e âriyâ'i), borrowing from European race science of the period. Iran was renamed from Persia in 1935 partly to foreground this Aryan identity. School textbooks, monuments, and state speeches all used نژاد in this charged way. The legacy is that the word in human contexts now sounds heavier than its English equivalent.