At least 12 people who are believed to belong to Iran‘s Sunni minority have been killed in clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters in the south-western city of Ahwaz since Friday.
On Monday, Shirin Ebadi, Iran’s Nobel peace prize laureate, wrote a letter to the UN high commissioner for human rights, in which she said “more than 12” Sunni protesters had been killed in Iran’s oil-rich province of Khuzestan, home to many Arabic-speaking Sunni Iranians.
According to Ebadi, hundreds of people in Ahwaz had gathered for a peaceful demonstration against the Islamic regime’s discrimination towards its Sunni minority.
“During these clashes, more than 12 people were killed, around 20 injured and tens of protesters have been arrested,” Ebadi wrote in her letter.
She criticised Iran’s treatment of the Sunnis and said: “In the 32 years’ history of the Islamic Revolution, Arabic-speaking Iranians have suffered from inequality and an extensive discrimination.”
