Anti-Arab racism includes opposition to, dislike, fear, or hatred of Arab people.
Khuzestan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Ahvaz. Located in the southwest of the country, the province borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf, covering an area of 63,238 square kilometres (24,416 sq mi). Its capital is the city of Ahvaz. Since 2014, it has been part of Iran's Region 4.
Ahvaz is a city in the Central District of Ahvaz County, Khuzestan province, Iran. It serves as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is home to Persians, Arabs, Bakhtiaris, Dezfulis, Shushtaris, and others. Languages spoken in the area include Persian, Arabic, Luri and dialects such as Bakhtiari, Dezfuli and Shushtari.
This article focuses on the status of ethnic minorities in contemporary Iran.
Iranian Arabs are the citizens of Iran who are ethnically Arab and speak Arabic as their native language. In 2008, their population stood at about 1.6 million people. They are primarily concentrated in Khuzestan Province.
Khuzestan province is located in southwestern Iran. Its history extends from the pre-Aryan ancient Elamite civilization to the modern-day Islamic Republic.
Khuzestani Arabic is a dialect of South Mesopotamian Arabic spoken by the Iranian Arabs in Khuzestan Province of Iran. While it is a variety of SMA, it has many similarities with Gulf Arabic in neighbouring Kuwait. It has subsequently had a long history of contact with the Persian language, leading to several changes. The main changes are in word order, noun–noun and noun–adjective attribution constructions, definiteness marking, complement clauses, and discourse markers and connectors.
The Ahvaz bombings was a series of bomb explosions, that took place mostly in Ahvaz, Iran in 2005 and 2006, and were blamed on Ahvaz separatist organizations of Arabs. The bombings were linked to the violent '15 April unrest' in Ahvaz, prior to the bombings. Some 28 people were killed and 225 wounded in Ahvaz bombings.
The Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz is an Arab nationalist and separatist insurgent group which advocates the secession of an area in southern Iran including all of Khuzestan Province and Bushehr Province and parts of Ilam Province, Hormozgan Province, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province from Iran and the establishment of an Arab state, a goal which it is attempting to achieve by waging a direct and violent conflict against Iran. The claimed area is shown in the group’s logo as well.
Members of the Baháʼí Faith have been persecuted in various countries, especially in Iran, the location of one of the largest Baháʼí populations in the world. The Baháʼí Faith originated in Iran, and represents the largest religious minority in that country. Since the later part of the 20th century many third party organizations such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, the European Union, and the United States have made statements denouncing the persecution of Baháʼís asking that human rights be maintained. Members of the Baháʼí community in Iran have been subjected to unwarranted arrests, false imprisonment, beatings, torture, unjustified executions, confiscation and destruction of property owned by individuals and the Baháʼí community, denial of employment, denial of government benefits, denial of civil rights and liberties, and denial of access to higher education.
2005 Ahvaz unrest or 15 April Ahvaz Protests were violent riots, initiated by Iranian Arabs in the city of Ahvaz in southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan. The unrest erupted on 15 April 2005, and lasted for 4 days. Initially, the Iranian Interior Ministry stated that only one person had been killed, however an official at a hospital in Ahvaz said that there were between 15 and 20 mortal casualties. Government officials blamed the unrest on Britain, whose troops based just across the border in southern Iraq. Following the unrest, several bombings were carried out in Ahvaz, killing 28 people. In 2006, Iran executed five Arab separatists, convicted of carrying out the bombings in 2005.
The 1979 Khuzestan uprising was one of the nationwide uprisings in Iran, which erupted in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. The unrest was fed by Arab demands for autonomy. The uprising was effectively quelled by Iranian security forces, resulting in more than a hundred people on both sides killed.
The 2011 Khuzestan protests, known among protesters as the Ahvaz Day of Rage, relates to violent protests, which erupted on 15 April 2011 in Khuzestan Province, to mark an anniversary of the 2005 Ahvaz unrest, and as a response to the regional Arab Spring. The protests lasted for 4 days and resulted in 12 to 15 protesters killed and many wounded and arrested. 1 security officer was killed as well, and another wounded. Crackdown on Arab political opposition in the area continued since with arrests and executions.
Arab separatism in Khuzestan was a decades-long separatist Arab movement in the western part of the Khuzestan Province in Iran.
Hashem Shabani, also known as Hashem Shabaninejad, was an ethnic Ahwazi Arab citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was a high school teacher of Arabic language and literature, a poet in both Arabic and Persian, and an activist who promoted Arabic culture and literature in Iran. In February 2011, government authorities arrested Shabani and four other Ahwazis.
Khuzestani Arabs are the Arabic speaking inhabitants of the Khuzestan province and the largest Arabic speaking community in Iran which primarily reside in the western half of Khuzestan. The capital of Khuzestan is Ahvaz. As of 2010, Khuzestani Arabs numbered around 1.6 million people.
Islamic Reconciliation Party or Al-Wefaq Islamic Party formerly named Reconciliation Committee, was an Iranian local ethnic party associated with Arab minority in Khuzestan Province.
Shabib Jovijari is one of the former representatives of Ahwaz in the Islamic Consultative Assembly and is a member of the "National Security and Foreign Policy Commission" in the Majlis. Jovijari who is among the Iranian Arabs, was also the representative of the people of Ahvaz, Bavi, Hamidiyeh and Karun in the seventh and eighth terms of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
The 2021 Iranian water protests were a series of protests by Iranians against water shortages in Khuzestan province during the summer. Protests broke out on 15 July 2021 due to the ongoing water crisis in Iran but spread across the country to other provinces and cities where people organised rallies in solidarity with Khuzestan, including Tehran, Kermanshah, Isfahan, Bushehr, Lorestan, Kurdistan, East Azerbaijan, North Khorasan and Alborz. Protests were soon dubbed 'The Uprising of the Thirsty" and turned violent as police forces attempted to suppress them due to demands for the end of the current regime. Casualties were recorded both amongst police forces and civilian demonstrators. Protests in Khuzestan lasted for around 10 days and were predominantly urban. The last large-scale demonstration in solidarity with Khuzestan took place on 31 July in Tehran. The violent nature of the protests received a lot media-attention and various government officials made statements promising extended and specific support to the region. This included releasing more water from Karkheh Dam in northern Khuzestan and sending emergency water tanks to most affected regions.
There are several separatist movements in Iran, most of which are associated with a particular minority ethnic group. Iran is a highly diverse country: in 2015, it was estimated that Persians―Iran's dominant ethnic group―only made up about 61% of the Iranian population.
