Tuesday 21 April 2015

War on Ahwazi Arab Poets: Iran arrests another Ahwazi poet

Iran on 15 April 2015 arrested Mohammed Nassar, a poet from Abbadan city, for participating in Younes Asakara funeral. Sources said he was arrested at his home by security services agents.  He was hooded and handcuffed and were taken to unknown location. His belongings were also seized by agents.

On 23 March 2015, following the self-immolation and death of Younes Asakrah, Arab street vendor and father of two, security forces arrested scores of Arab mourners who had came from different cities to pay their respect and show solidarity with his family. The day before the authorities had detained Younes’s father, brother and a tribal leader and forced them to sign a document pledging to mourn their son privately outside the city. But hundreds of angry mourners, including Mohammad Nassar, defiantly participated in the procession and the funeral turned to an angry protest against the racist and oppressive regime of Iran. 

Iran recently arrested another Ahwazi poet, Ahmad Sabhan Al Hazbawi, for saying a poem supporting the Operation Decisive Storm, a coalition of ten countries participating in the war against the Houthi movement in Yemen. He was arrested at his perfume shop in Kut Abdullah town near Ahwaz. Sources and eyewitnesses have confirmed seeing masked officers, believed to be from the Intelligence service, beating and dragging him to the ground from his shop to a vehicle. The arrest took place after the poet and jubilant crowd, mainly youth, appeared in a video on 27 March 2015 expressing support for the operation.

Only last week, on 15 April 2015, Ahwazi poet, Reyad Hamed Al Nasseri (Reyad Nasseri) was executed in Ahwaz Karoun notorious prison. He left behind his wife, two daughter and eighteen year old son named Mohammed. He was executed on 10 annivarsay of Ahwazi uprising in 2005. Some of his poems were sung by the popular Ahwazi signer Abbas Sahaqi.

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