When citizens throughout the Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region are asking for political change, Iran’s systematic oppression of an estimated eight million Ahwazi Arabs should not be allowed to continue unchallenged.
The territory of Al Ahwaz — known as Khuzestan in Iran — stretches between the Zagros Mountains to the north and the east, Iraq in the West and Kuwait in the south. It is blessed with vast deposits of oil and gas as well as agricultural land, yet its Arab population is overwhelmingly poor and illiterate.
Tehran has discriminated against the Arabs of Al Ahwaz since their homeland’s occupation and annexation by the Shah; they are being treated as third-class citizens, abandoned to primitive living standards and without even the basic political rights.
The Director of the Ahwaz Education and Human Rights Foundation, Karim Abdian, highlighted the Ahwazi plight in the UN. He explained that the Ahwazi population suffers from a shortage of drinking water, electricity, plumbing, telephone and sewage. Fifty per cent live in absolute poverty, while some 80 per cent of children are malnourished.
