Al Shindagah

4 | Al Shindagah | Issue 138 POLITICS f you are unaware that there are millions of Arabs subsisting in miserable conditions in the oil-and-water-rich Iranian province of Khuzestan, you can be forgiven. The shameful fact is that their plight goes under the Arab World’s radar and is rarely highlighted by either the Western or Arab media. These are the forgotten Ahwazis of Arabistan, a region that was once under the dominion of the Ummayid and Abbasid Caliphs. In 1925, it was annexed by the oil-hungry Reza Shah who had its Arab ruler Sheikh Khaz’al of Muhammerah placed under arrest until his death. As if life under the Pahlavi dynasty was not hard enough for the children of Arabistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran tramples upon every facet of their human rights, forces them to live in abject poverty and attempts to obliterate their Arab identity. Many are in crisis mode unable to care for their families. Some 81 per cent of youths are unemployed because relocated Persians are given priority. They are beginning to lose all hope. Last month alone a young Ahwazi husband and father was seen on YouTube setting himself alight before dying in hospital; at least four other family men chose to hang themselves to escape Iran’s persecution and ethno-religious discrimination. Moreover, their environment is being ruined by the bad practices of oil and chemical companies resulting in desertification of farmlands, polluted rivers, dead birds and fish as well as a heightened prevalence of breathing difficulties. Whenever they gather together to vent their legitimate frustrations the regime cracks down even harder, arresting demonstrators and often subjecting them to the cruellest of tortures. Despite all odds, these virtual prisoners on the soil that bore their ancestors are genuine Arab patriots – barring a small disruptive minority of Communists and those with allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood – who view their communities as the first line of defence between Iranian expansion and a buffer between Tehran and Gulf Arab States. No Persian banning of their language, traditional clothing or names has succeeded in casting a shadow over their Arab minds and souls. There was little differential made between Arab Sunnis and Shiites prior to the 1979 revolution when the Ayatollah Khomeini constructed a Shiite underclass mirage to serve his own ends. The truth is that Iranians have been conned into believing Sunnis and Arabs are their natural enemies and the ruling mullahs are the defenders of Shiism. Iran only stands up for Shiites when doing so happens to suit its economic interests or core agendas – the dissemination of its medieval ideology, converting Arab countries into Iranian puppet states with the ultimate goal of controlling Islam’s holiest sites. A recent example of Tehran’s perfidiousness was during the ‘four- day war’, a conflict that erupted in April 2016 between overwhelmingly Shiite Azerbaijan and predominately Christian Armenia set on destroying a budding Azerbaijani-Turkish front. Iran that has long objected to western oil giants operating on the Caspian shelf, adopted a pro- Armenian position. Likewise, Iran’s support of the Palestinian cause is another façade designed to win over gullible Arab nationalists as Abdullah Al-Otaibi pinpointed several years ago in I The downtrodden Arabs the world ignores Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor • Published in the media on 6 September 2017