15-year old Ahwazi girl kidnapped by the Iranian authorities

World's conscience demanded to move to rescue Maeda al-Amuri Rights activists and watchdogs are appealing to the universal conscience to intervene to set the 15-year old detainee Maeda al-Amuri, free.

This is what happens to Arab activists in Iran

The rush to a nuclear deal with Iran has left human rights issues sidelined. Few people in the West seem to care. They just want to ensure that Tehran does not develop a nuclear capability. This aim is understandable but it leaves Iran’s political prisoners, torture victims and persecuted ethnic minorities with little hope of any respite.

Iran cracks down on mass protests in Ahwaz against municipal electoral fraud

Iranian security forces forcibly dispersed mass protests in the southern region of Ahwaz on Monday and Tuesday against what people say were electoral fraud in the recent municipal elections.

Iran’s IRGC Believed To Be Distributing Crack Among Ahwazis

A crack epidemic is devastating the poverty-stricken Arab Al-Ahwaz region of Iran, with credible reports suggesting that the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are behind the manufacture and distribution of the deadly and highly addictive opiate in the region.

Pollution Threatens The Ahwazi Arabs Of Iran

Activists in the Ahwazi region have circulated images of what they call an environmental tragedy affecting the area.                                

The Ahwazi Arabs live in southern Iran. Activists in the Ahwazi region have circulated images of what they call an environmental tragedy affecting the area, including the Falahiyeh wetlands, which are vital for the livelihood of thousands of Ahwazis.

Local Groups Warn Suicide Is on the Rise Among Iran's Impoverished Arab Ahwazi Community

The self-immolation of a man named Jassim Moramazi on 27 August has thrust the desperate situation of poverty and unemployment for Iran's Ahwazi Arab community into the spotlight.

Iran arrests dozens of Ahwazi Arabs ahead of Eid al-Adha celebrations

Iranian security forces arrested dozens of Arab activists and citizens in Ahwaz to prevent marches and celebrations during Eid al-Adha, the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO) said in a statement which Al-Arabiya.net received a copy of.

Iranian Oil Deal with China Ignores Poverty in Al-Ahwaz

On 16 August 2017, Iran and China met in a joint Economic Commission to discuss China's role in acquiring oil reserves in the Al-Ahwaz region of Iran, which is home to millions of indigenous Ahwazi Arabs. Despite living in one of the most oil rich regions of Iran, the indigenous people continues to live in poverty and fear of persecution under the Iranian regime. There is concern that China's intervention will continue to ignore or even worsen the ethnic discrimination and poverty faced by Ahwazi Arabs. This concern is reinforced by the Iranian government’s refusal to consider the region’s parliamentary representatives’ appeal for the contracts with China to include redistribution of oil revenue to the Ahwazi. 

Rights Groups Urge Iranian Authorities to Stop Executing Kurdish Prisoners

Iranian authorities must immediately put a halt to the execution of Kurdish political and faith prisoners, X human rights organizations stated. These organizations also urged an immediate moratorium on the death penalty and a right to due process and a fair and public retrial for all prisoners sentenced to death.

Young Ahwazi Arab Worker From Falahiya Set Himself On Fire After Denied Salary For Six Months

Ismaiel Shawardi (Khanafrah), 30, married, from Falahiya, and a worker at Shadegan municipality set himself on fire on 27 May 2016 after being denied salary for six continuous months.

Ismaiel Shawardi, 30

The sole breadwinner was under enormous financial pressure and could not provide for his family. He and other workers went on strike over late payments but to no avail as officials refused to meet them. He can be seen in the picture below holding a banner which reads:

"We, the municipality workers, demand

our delayed four months salaries”

 Suicide among Ahwazi Arabs, especially young male, has dramatically increased in the last recent years. Families and activists believe severe socioeconomic deprivation and systematic racial discrimination against Ahwazi Arabs particularly in employment are the main factors:

Ismaeil Shawardi at protest
 on 17 Feb. 2016

Younes Asakereh, 34, an Ahwazi Arab street vendor from Mohammara (Khoramshahr) set himself on fire on March 13, 2015, to protest municipal authorities’ removal and destruction of his fruit stand. His death triggered massive protests thorough the province.  Omid Rashdi Amir, 36, from Khalafiya (Ramshir) died on 23 September 2015 after setting himself ablaze inside the trade union building after being sacked

Mahdi Mojaddam, 32, from Chahar Sad Dastgah, Ahwaz, died on 16 April 2011 of self-immolation outside the governor-general office, he passed two days later.

Hassan Salemi, from Ahwaz, married with one child killed end his life because of unemployment and poverty.


Teenager from Maashour,

 cut his wrist next to his late father’s

 grave because of extreme

 poverty and deprivation.

4 October 2015, a teenager from Maashour, cut his wrist next to his late father’s grave because of extreme poverty and deprivation.

Hamid Sharifi from Ain2, Ahwaz, hanged himself on 10 September 2014 because have had no source of income.

Mortada Haydari, 17, killed himself on 4 May 2015 because of poverty and unemployment.

Mahdi Afrawi, vendor at Naderi street, died on 1 May after throwing herself in front of train to protest his stall's confiscation by the authorities as he and his family had no other source of income