Iranian Arabs seek equal rights

[IndianaGreen]

Ahwazi Arabs follow both Shia and Sunni Islam

Iranian Arabs seek equal rights

By Ahmed Janabi

Amnesty International has urged Iran to improve its human rights record as the country celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

Amnesty said that "some sectors of society – including ethnic minorities – continue to face widespread discrimination, while the situation for other groups – notably some religious minorities – has significantly worsened".

"Those seen as dissenting from stated or unstated official policies face severe restrictions on their rights to freedom of belief, expression, association and assembly," the advocacy group said.

Iranians of Arab descent, known as Ahwazis, who live in the south of the country, say they are one such ethnic minority who have been persecuted and marginalised by the government in Tehran.

Seyed Tahir al-Seyed Nima, the chairman of the Ahwaz National Liberation Movement (ANLM), said Ahwazis consider themselves to be under Iranian occupation in much the same way Palestinians suffer under Israeli occupation.

He said: "We were an independent state until 1925 when oil was discovered in our land and our ruler Sheikh Khazal was killed. Our land was then annexed by the Shah of Iran."

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/iranaftertherevolution/2008/12/200812691745418706.html

[GoesTo11]

1. what does this mean?

[Igel]

4. Probably not a heck of a whole lot.

I'd be more concerned with Balochi independence rumblings.

It's convenient in the US to assume that other countries that aren't notoriously multiethnic are somehow more reasonable about it than in the US. Some exceptions are remarkable: Sudan, Rwanda, Congo, Israeli, Iraq, Russia, Yugoslavia (and, oddly, the list is quite long even though the impression I get is most people think it's quite short).

Iran is a salad bowl, one that shares many of its ethnicities with neighboring countries, and its borders are simply the result of imperialism and conquest--some theirs, some Arab, some by others (including, of course, Westerners). Azeris are numerous, Arabs are numerous, Balochis are numerous, Turkmen and Kurds. Then there are the minorities encompassed entirely by Iran.

They keep a lid on it by a combination of local ethnic rights and out-and-out oppression. The balance varies quite a bit. Currently there's an armed militia in the Balochi regions that kills from time to time; the assumption by some DUers is that it's somehow a CIA operation, even though it's a dead-ringer for the same kind of movement going on in Pakistan, one that seems to be allowing the Afghan Taliban to operate out of Quetta. In other words, we joyfully posit two variables when one will account for all the data just fine; Occam would not be amused. The Arab minority is a thorn in the Persians' side; the Persian news media is a thorn in al-Jazeera's side because the Arab-language broadcast network tends to be the mouthpiece for the Iranian government concerning most things Arabs. In other words, when it comes to reporting on Iran, too often AJ winds up airing Iranian Arabic-language footage instead of re-reporting on some Persian original.

Useful map from one of my favorite websites:

[Diclotican]

2. IndianaGreen

IndianaGreen

Sound bad out this, and I do hope the Iranian government does what they have to do, to do it better.. But I have a feeling that the CIA is behind this group, the US have in many year now (Long before the Iraq war) tried to topple the regime in Tehran, and maybe they managed to get some group, like ANLM to sigh up to this, with the "promise" of an independent state like they are talking about here.. As I know it, it have never been a independent nation between Iraq and Iran not on the south of Iran anyway. And in 1925 Iran was more or less under the power of the United Kingdom, and the Shah of Persia was a king who ruled with the help of the british empire.. the name Iran got into the fry long after 1925, in fact it was until the middle of the 1960s, the then government of Persia decided that the new name of the land should be Iran, in a try to modernize the whole country.. But even then, the name Persia and Iran would be used indecently of eatchother... And even today, most american have no clue that Persia are the same name as Iran, and it is the same country...

Something is fishy about this, and I would not be surprised, if someone followed this up, that ANLM in fact is sponsored by your Central Intelligence Agency...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language

[IndianaGreen]

3. Well, the Bahais have also been persecuted in Iran

from the days of Prophet Bahá’u’lláh in the 19th century.

[Diclotican]

5. IndianaGreen

IndianaGreen

You are right there.. But I doubt that the Bahais want to have a in-depended nation, inside Iran. They just want to be allowed to worship what they believe, in relative peace.... I would say this other group is far more dangerous than the Bahais for the government of Iran, who have a lot of minorities to work with too.. Even christians minority are there in the Islamic Republic of Iran... And they have been there for the last couple of thousand year.. Or at least since the 600s...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language.