Search This Blog

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Anti-socio-environmental policies in Ahwaz

 Having access to safe drinking water and sanitation is central to living a life in dignity and upholding human rights. Yet billions of Ahwazi Arab people still do not enjoy these fundamental rights.
Although Ahwaz has huge water resources, (about 33% of Iran’s total), the region is suffering from a serious water crisis. The water crisis has caused by ecological mismanagements of Karoon River; the largest river flow through Ahwazi lands .since 1979, Iranian revolution, and the karoon has faced more than 400 incidents of serious contamination. Beside the policy of land confiscation, a parallel policy against Ahwazis is being practiced that is diverting water of main river course in Ahwaz such as Karoon, Al-karkha, and Al-Jarrahi and pumping it to central Persian areas such as Isfahan, Yazd and Kareman for the purpose of irrigation. This happens while they deprive the Arab farmers of utilizing this water and make their struggle for survival very difficult and very frustrating. Periodically they fabricate flood via their dams that are known as Arab killer Dams that have been constructed for this purpose in order to demolish the infrastructure of Ahwazi Arab villages and their fertile lands to restrict their brutal circle force on Ahwazi Arabs farmers to abandon their lands and look for other alternatives for make living. They consequently facilitate the displacement of Arab people and confiscations of their arable lands and demolition of Arabian villages and the countryside of Ahwaz.
River diversion project

Monday, October 14, 2013

The rise of cesarean surgeries among Arab women

In almost every country in the world couples get to decide on how
many children they want to have. This is their basic rights as human beings, to be given a choice, and to decide for their selves. From the beginning of human kind we were born to reproduce. Long ago each family had at least seven or eight children. Why do they have so many children?  The survival of the children would benefit the parents, and the population of a certain group.

When a group of people go to war, most likely the people are going to have more children to carry their name. Al-Ahwaz is a country that has been occupied by Iran since 1925. The Iranians have a plan though; to make the Arabs have fewer children. They have been going through with this plan for a while, and they cover their tracks very well. They do not want the Arabs to be a big population, so it would be easier to control them, and to keep them under the Iranian regime.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Stop on-going executions in Al-Ahwaz amidst silence and indifference from the international community

Petition Background (Preamble)

Islamic Republic of Iran has and continues to violate basic human rights of Ahwazi Cultural rights activists by imposing death and harsh prison sentences. In a new wave of crackdown against Ahwazi Arabs an Iranian revolutionary court sentenced three activist in an unfair trial after subjecting them to torture at intelligence services facilities. The three men were arrested with six others last November 2012.
These Ahwazi Arabs have been sentenced to death by a notorious judge who is currently the subject of EU sanctions.

Ali Chebeishat (47), Sayed Yasin Mousawi (35) were convicted by judge Seyed Mohammad Bagher Moussavi at Branch 2 of Ahwaz Revolutionary Court. A third activist, Salman Chayan (32), was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in the city of Yazd; he had been transferred to Fatemeh Alzhra hospital in late July after his health deteriorated in Dezful prison, where he was being held. All three men are members of the Youth of Shush Cultural Institute. Their forced "confessions", following months of torture, have been recorded for broadcast by Iran's English language broadcaster Press TV

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Inequality in Ahwaz By: Zeinab Abdel Hamid

Inequality in Al- Ahwaz
Every day Ahwazi Arabs are dealing with inequality. They are being mistreated in schools, hospitals, government offices, and work. Social inequality originates from discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes. Discrimination and stereotypes have done a great deal of damage to the Arab population in Al-Ahwaz. Social inequality can cause people to not have the proper education and to have less job opportunities. Many Ahwazi people live below the standard of living; they live in the worst type of poverty.
Social inequality comes from stereotypes; these stereotypes are labels that Arab people are called to degrade them. Discrimination has caused many people to suffer as well because they do not get hired in every job. Fewer jobs are available for Arabs as a result of social inequality. If an Arab applied for a job, and a Persian applied for the same job; the employer would most likely pick the Iranian person. Even if they do get a job, they get a regular job, and they work for minimum wage. Someone’s racial background can determine how they are treated in Al-Ahwaz. This has made numerous individuals live in poverty. Social inequality is very unfair, because some people live in poverty (the Ahwazis), while others live a life of luxury (the Persians). Some employers do not hire someone because of their race, this is an unfair treatment. There are people that work very hard, and love the work they are in, but they are at a disadvantage because they are Arab. When people get low paying jobs, they do not go to the doctor when they suffer from an illness. With the rising cost of medicine, a small percentage of the Ahwazi people can afford paying for all their medical needs.
Another problem that destroyed the Arab population is that Ahwazi people get less educational opportunities. The reason for that is that they are oppressed; they cannot fight for their basic rights. They do not have the same opportunities that the Persians have. Families of Arab decent prepare their children to be faced with racism at school, because they are very likely to have someone bully them or mistreat them because they are Arab. When a person especially a child goes to school, they want to be in a safe environment. If the child feels that they are being mistreated by their instructor or other students; they would most likely not enjoy going to school. Some people do not realize what the consequence of quitting school does to their future. When they quit to escape the unfair treatment, they put themselves at a great disadvantage compared to other groups in the society. In today’s society someone without an education cannot achieve their goals. First of all, a person with no or low education is looked down upon. Another problem that they face is that they cannot find a permanent job that pays well when they do not have an education.
As a final note, everyday people are aware that their rights are being taken, but there is not much they can do. The problems that a society faces do not get solved in a day or two. It takes time, and plenty of time for situations to change. The people of Al- Ahwaz need media attention, the whole world should know that there are over 8 million Arabs living under the Iranian regime. If we turn a blind eye on the way these Arab people are suffering soon there would be no trace of any Arab in Al-Ahwaz. The Persians are killing Arabs for no reason or any evidence of criminal activity. The Persians are killing Ahwazi people so there would be no trace of Ahwazis, and the land would stay for them.
Zeinab Abdulhamid

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Insight - Iran's Arab minority drawn into Middle East unrest

image
By Isabel Coles
(Reuters) - Arab insurgents blew up
a gas pipeline in Iran last week and dedicated the attack to their brothers in arms in Syria, highlighting how the Syrian civil war is spreading into a region-wide proxy conflict that could blow back onto Iran.
The blast, two days after new President Hassan Rohani took office, hit a pipeline feeding a petrochemicals plant in the city of Mahshahr in Iran's southwest, home to most of its oil reserves and to a population of ethnic Arabs, known as Ahwazis for the main town in the area.
The Ahwazi Arabs are a small minority in mainly ethnic Persian Iran, some of whom see themselves as under Persian "occupation" and want independence or autonomy. They are a cause celebre across the Arab world, where escalating ethnic and sectarian rivalry with Iran now fuels the wars in Syria and Iraq and is behind political unrest from Beirut to Bahrain.
Tehran dismisses any suggestion that discontent is rife among its Arab minority, describing such reports as part of a foreign plot to steal the oil that lies beneath its Gulf coastal territory. Iranian news agencies reported a fire on the gas pipeline last week but said its cause was unknown

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Iran: Halt Execution of Arab Minority Men

(Beirut) – Iran’s judiciary should stop the executions of four
members of Iran’s Ahwazi Arab minority because of grave violations of due process, Amnesty International, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and Human Rights Watch said today. The judiciary should order a new trial according to international fair trial standards in which the death penalty is not an option. Family members and Ahwazi Arab rights activists have told human rights groups that the detainees contacted their families on July 16, 2013 and said they feared that authorities were planning to carry out the execution orders any day now.

Supreme Court Upholds Execution Sentence for Four Ahvazis

With the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the death sentences of four young Arab men from Ahvaz on charges of “moharebeh” (enmity with God) and “corruption on earth,” the prisoners are currently in danger of imminent execution at Karoon Prison in Ahvaz.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Iran prepares to execute four human rights activist

Iran prepares to execute four human rights activist Iran continues to violate human rights against its Arabs citizens as seven human right activists from Ahwaz in southern Iran face the death penalty since December 2012 (case no. 901043630040079). Ghazi Abbasi (31), Shehab Abbasi (27), Abdulameer Majdami (33) and Abdulreda Khanafra (26) were all arrested based on unpublished Iranian Intelligence reports according to which the activists are ‘waging war against God and spreading corruption’. The other three, namely Hadi Albokhanfer Nejad, Jassim Mughadem Payam and Sami Jedmawi Nejad are imprisoned for over 3 years and had recently been expelled to Arbedal prison. The former four activists had recently leaked a letter to their families from the inside of Iranian Intelligence prisons calling for help as they are facing both physical and psychological torture on the hands of the Iranian government. According to an official weapons expert (Ali Metri) who was responsible for the prisoners’ case, no bullets were aimed in or at any government institutions and/or its employees and the activists had murdered no one whatsoever. The Iranian regime disregarded Metri’s report and assigned another expert to condemn the activists and justify the sentence.
International organizations at many occasions had condemned the execution of Ahwazi Arabs in Iran, an oppressed and

Friday, June 28, 2013

Is Ahwaz entitled to self-determination?

 The aim of this article is to figure out whether Ahwaz can be
qualified to self -determination under the international law.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

The execution of Ahwazi intellectuals is an obvious phenomenon of national genocide committing by Iran

 When we look carefully at the history of Ahwazi Arab people of repression, violence and capital punishment we will find out that they have a bitter prolong experience of systematic crackdown in decades.
Meanwhile the execution of Ahwazian intellectuals  historically have always inflected an irreparable blow to the liberty movement of this occupied nation which is struggling to gain its fundamental rights of self- determination for years. The executions of early leaders of Arabistan liberty movement in 1963 ,the repressive policies of Islamic republic of Iran against Ahwazi people in every aspects of their life, and the tragic bloody massacre of Almuhammerah city in 1979, and the harsh crackdown of popular uprising in 2005 are vivid evidences  that the intellectuals Ahwazian figures and the political class of this nation repeatedly have been targeted by prison ,repression and execution.
The biggest popular uprising of Ahwazi people broke out on 9 April 2005 when people from different cities turned out into the streets and protested against the distribution of circular (petition) attributed to Mohammad Ali Abtahi ,former vice president parliamentary legal affairs of the president Mohammad Ali Khatami

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Execution sentence is the Iran”s last resort to liquidate Alahwazian prisoners

Since the popular uprising broke out in Alahwaz in 2005, the
Iranian regime began to conduct  a systematic liquidation of Ahwazian prisoners by deploying death Sentence as last resort to suffocate the Ahwazian voices.
When the Iranian regime perceived that its agenda has been failed to put out the peaceful resistance of Alahwazian people the Iranian authorities by the help of their deeply flawed criminal justice system began to prioritize the death penalty of Alahwzian prisoners ,amid warnings from the human rights organizations and the amnesty international organization .

Sunday, June 2, 2013

A LETTER FROMPRISON WRTITTEN BY HASHEM SHABBANI THE AHWAZIAN PRISONER


The Ahwazian cultural and intellectual activist, Hashem Shabani has revealed a humanitarian appeal
from Karoon prisonthat is addressed to all human rights organizations and the amnesty international organization highlighting the fact that the whole accusationswhich flung out on him and his mates are fully fabricated by the Iranian intelligence service which is now playing with the lives of our best highly educated youths through accusing them with vague accusations to bring them to the gallows rope.
In his letter which is written in Arabic by his own handwriting, he describesthe imposed charges on himself and his cellmates are really cruel and unfair. He starts his desperate appeal as follow:
To those whom concern about human rights
Dear sisters and brothers:

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Tunisia links two wanted jihadist groups to al-Qaeda

AFP, Tunis -
Tunisian authorities on Tuesday recognized that two jihadist groups which the army has been hunting on the Algerian border have links to al-Qaeda, stressing their determination to take them out.

Health of Algeria’s president ‘significantly improved’

AFP, Algiers -
The health of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, hospitalized in France last month after suffering a mini-stroke, has “significantly improved,” the presidency announced on Tuesday.

U.N. protests Israeli military flights over Lebanon

AFP, United Nations -
The United Nations has called on Israel to halt increased military air patrols over Lebanon amid heightened tensions after air raids on targets in Syria, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday.

Monday, April 15, 2013

KU's sentenced Iranian family go on hunger strike

Alboshoka’s cousins are among many on hunger strike in Iran. Image courtesy of: Haifa Ahwazi

A KU student’s cousins have gone on hunger strike after being banned from contacting their families while they await the death penalty in Iran.
Matt Wilson
Kamil Alboshoka’s two cousins, Jabber and Mokhtar, along with his three friends Mohammed Amouri, Hashem Shabani and Hadi Rashedi have been on hunger strike at Karoon Prison in Ahwaz, south-west Iran since Saturday March 2.
Mr Alboshoka said: “The authorities don’t allow them to visit a doctor. It’s too difficult, I want to help them but I don’t know how.”
The men were sentenced to death on January 9 this year and their physical condition has rapidly deteriorated ever since.
The River reported last month that the men were arrested on charges including “enmity against God”, “corruption on earth” and spreading propaganda against the system.
Second class citizens in their own land

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Arab activists face execution on Iran's death row

Lock and bars of Qasr Prison in Tehran

Minorities

Arab activists face execution on Iran's death row

Minorities in Iran face stepped-up efforts to silence and stamp them out - including mass arrests and executions. An Ahwazi Arab activist seeking appeals for five men on death row shared his personal story with DW.
Of the 21 countries that practice the death penalty, Iran carried out the second-greatest number of executions in 2012 (after China), according to a report released by Amnesty International on Wednesday (10.04.2013). Beyond the 314 official executions in the Islamic Republic, the group cited reports of at least 230 additional secret executions.
One of the deadly offenses is "enmity against God," a vague charge the Iranian state has used in political attacks against government opponents and minorities. About 40 to 50 percent of the Iranian population consists of ethnic or religious minorities, including Azerbaijanis, Kurds and Iranian Arabs, also known as Ahwazi Arabs. The roots of these minorities go back hundreds of years, and in the past they've have been tolerated and granted rights.
But minorities are increasingly seen as a threat to consolidation of a homogeneous Persian, Shiite nation. Under the hard-line administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran has increased arrests and executions of minorities - including against Ahwazi Arabs. After a trial widely viewed as unfair in June of 2012, four Ahwazi Arabs were executed, while the death sentence for five others was upheld this past January.
Informational graphic showing which states implement the death penalty worldwide
Although the five Ahwazi Arabs were found guilty of links to terrorist groups, Amnesty describes them as peaceful activists. Two who admitted to committing crimes on national television have since retracted, saying they were tortured to make them confess. In late March, the five started a hunger strike to protest their unfair sentences and ill treatment in prison.
Kamil Alboshoka, an Ahwazi who fled Iran in 2006, is cousin to two and friend to the other three of the five Ahwazi Arabs on death row. He shared his personal story with DW.
Cultural dialogue
Alboshoka and the five men - Mohammad Ali Amouri, Sayed Jaber Alboshoka, Sayed Mokhtar Alboshoka, Hashem Sha'bani Amouri and Hadi Rashidi - in 2002 established the cultural group Al Hawir, which means "dialogue," to help preserve the Ahwazi Arab language.
"It was helpful because we motivated people to study," Alboshoka told DW in an interview. Because of the group's work, Alboshoka said, more than 200 women initiated university studies from 2002 to 2005.
Al Hawir also sponsored social events, including parties for thousands of people, featuring Arabic music, poetry and theater. Although the group operated with government permission, Alboshoka said they "were under pressure by intelligence services."
Every April, Ahwazi groups mark the annexation of their homeland by Iranian forces, which occurred in 1925. In 2005, changes to the name of the region, along with plans to displace Arabs and settle Persians there, sparked Ahwazi demonstrations in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan.
"People got sad and angry, and protested," Alboshoka said. In April 2005, demonstrators seeking rights and autonomy clashed with Iranian security forces, and many were killed as the uprising was put down.
"Actually we didn't think they would use live ammunition against us," Alboshoka commented.
A spate of deadly bombings, for which Ahwazi separatist groups took credit, heightened tensions from mid-2005 to mid-2006. Separatists in the oil-rich region had been encouraged by Arab countries that sought to destabilize Iran. In June 2005, after Ahmadinejad came to power, Al Hawir was banned. Alboshoka was among the Ahwazi activists detained that year.
Hallway with cell doors at Qasr Prison in Tehran, a political prison that has been transformed into a museum 
 Mass arrests of minorities are among the repressive tactics the Ahmadinejad administration has used
'Once a day torture, twice a day interrogation'
Alboshoka was arrested at the bazaar in his hometown, a small city south of Ahvaz. He said he was handcuffed and blindfolded, and hours later arrived in what he believed to be the city of Ahvaz. There, he said, he was tortured for the first time.
"Once a day torture, twice a day questioning," is how Alboshoka described the four weeks he spent in prison. "For 21 days I was under really bad torture, by cable, by wood, they hung me by my hands," he said. They threatened to kill him and harm his family.
During his detention, authorities sought to force him to divulge information on who organized the Ahwazi protest - which Alboshoka described as a spontaneous uprising - and what international involvement there may have been. Alboshoka said there wasn't any.
He was eventually released, but the crackdown continued, Alboshoka said: In 2006, security services stormed his house, during which they killed his uncle and arrested his entire family, including his 83-year-old grandfather. Most were held for several weeks and apparently tortured. Alboshoka and his cousin, who were not home when the house was raided, fled to Denmark.
Alboshoka currently enjoys political asylum in Europe.
His family members have been repeatedly arrested in the years since then. In most cases they were released after some time in detention, Alboshoka said. But in 2011, his cousins and friends were arrested in a sweep against former Al Hawir members.
The five were tortured, including by electric shock, for seven months, Alboshoka said. One man's jaw and teeth were broken, another had his leg broken and a third experienced memory loss.
Informational graphic showing the numbers of death penalties implemented worldwide
International pressure sought
The men were charged with "enmity against God," "corruption on earth," and "spreading propaganda against state security."
They were tried in secret and no evidence was publicly presented against the men, according to Amnesty International. The five were found guilty of links to terrorist groups and sentenced to death. In January their sentences were confirmed.
Amnesty and Kamil Alboshoka have urged international assistance against the death sentences of the men. It would help "if the European Union and other Western governments, and the international community put Iran under pressure, talked about the situation," Alboshoka told DW.

Kate Laycock and Neil King contributed to this report.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Ahwazis address Geneva meeting

The Iranian regime is engaged in crimes against humanity in its attempts to ethnically cleanse Ahwazi Arabs from their homeland, Ali Saedi the Director of the Ahwazi Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) told a meeting at the UN headquarters in Geneva this week.
Addressing activists, UN officials and human rights NGOs, including the independent expert on minority issues Rita Isaacs, Ali Saedi called for the international community to do more to support the rights of "defenceless" Ahwazi Arabs who are facing "barbaric violence" by the Iranian state.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The family of a KU student face death penalty in Iran after a year of torture



A Kingston student is fearing for his family and friends in Iran after they were sentenced to death by the Iranian courts.
Jack Hammond and Jamie Elliott
A KU student has described his fears for his two cousins and three friends after they were sentenced to death by the Iranian courts.
Kamil Alboshoka’s two cousins, Jabber and Mokhtar, along with his three friends Mohammed Amouri, Hashem Shabani and Hadi Rashedi, were arrested in their homes in Ahwaz, Iran in 2011.
"Their death penalty decision was upheld by high revolution court in Tehran which puts them in a very dangerous situation," said Mr Alboshoka, 29, a final year human geography student at Kingston.
"They have very poor health now and do not have access to doctors. They have a lack of food and poor facilities in the prison."
Tortured day and night

Foreign Office Minister welcomes UN resolution condemning the human rights situation in Iran

Published:
28 November 2012
Policy:
placeholderMinister:
Alistair Burt MP
World location:
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said: "The overwhelming number of votes in support represents a clear statement by the international community that this situation is unacceptable and should be condemned."
Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt said:
“I welcome yesterday’s adoption of this resolution on the human rights situation in Iran by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly. The overwhelming number of votes in support represents a clear statement by the international community that this situation is unacceptable and should be condemned.
“Iran’s human rights record remains appalling. The last twelve months have seen multiple violations by the regime of its human

Friday, March 1, 2013

Statement by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton on the confirmed death sentences and potentially imminent executions of five Ahwazi Arab men in Iran


EUROPEA0 U0IO0
EUROPEA0 U0IO0 Brussels, 29 January 2013
A 43/13
Statement by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton
on the confirmed death sentences and potentially imminent
executions of five Ahwazi Arab men in Iran
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice
President of the Commission issued the following statement today:
"It was with great concern that I learned that an Iranian High Court has upheld the death sentences