With Iranian diaspora politics reinvigorated in the wake of the recent protests in Iran, Kurdish opposition groups are struggling to unite around a common platform for the future of the country—and the rights of Kurds in it.

Cracks in the ranks of the Kurdish opposition emerged when Abdollah Mohtadi, the leader of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan (Komala)—a Kurdish leftist-nationalist party—joined the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom in Iran, popularly known as the Georgetown Group. The formation of the latter was announced at a high-profile event at Washington’s Georgetown University in February.

In addition to Mohtadi, the Georgetown alliance included seven other Iranian opposition figures and celebrities including Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last Shah; Masih Alinejad, a prominent activist; Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi; Hamed Esmaeilion, the spokesperson for...