Intelligence and security forces have rounded up scores of Ahvazi Arabs in what appears to be an escalating crackdown in Khuzestan province, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported.
According to activists and family members, many arrests took place in the lead-up to the 10th anniversary of mass anti-government demonstrations that gripped the Arab-populated province in April 2005.
Family members said the arrests have been carried out without warrants by groups of armed masked men affiliated with Iran’s security and intelligence services, usually following raids on Ahvazi Arab homes during the late evening or early morning hours.
The human rights organizations expressed concern that people may have been arrested merely for perceived political opinions, for peacefully expressing dissent or for openly exhibiting their Arab identity and culture. “The reported scale of the arrests against Ahvazi Arab activists in recent weeks is deeply alarming,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International.
Ahvazi Arab activists outside Iran told Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that security forces have arrested at least 77 people, and possibly more than 100, since mid-March. The groups released the names of 77.
They said those arrested include people suspected of playing leadership roles in mobilizing local protests.
Iranian authorities have not given a reason for the arrests or revealed the status and whereabouts of the detainees.
One of those arrested was Hatam Ebyat, a 35-year-old activist from the town of Hamidieh, who was picked up at 2 a.m. April 6 in his home, according to Hossein Moayedi, a friend of Ebyat living outside Iran.
Moayedi said that since 2005, the authorities have arrested Ebyat every year before the April anniversary, holding him in solitary confinement in an Intelligence Ministry detention center in Ahvaz without access to his family or lawyer for several weeks, then releasing him on a hefty bail.
Moayedi said Ebyat, who has a meat shop in Hamidieh, is mainly active in organizing Eid and other religious and cultural festivities and encouraging youth to wear traditional Arab clothing.
The latest round of arrests has taken place amid anger that has swept the province following the death of Younes Asakereh, an Ahvazi Arab street vendor who set himself on fire March 13 to protest the municipal authorities’ removal and destruction of his fruit stand. He was denied adequate emergency treatment and transport to Tehran due to lack of funds and died of his injuries March 22, a source familiar with the details told Human Rights Watch.
Ahvazi Arab demonstrators then took took to the streets in large numbers in Khorramshahr.
This was reminiscent of the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2011 after a Tunisian street cart peddler who had been harassed by a police officer set himself on fire and died.
After Asakereh’s incineration, a protest erupted outside Ahvaz’s Ghadir Stadium where mostly young Ahvazi Arab men displayed a banner during a soccer match between Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal and the local team, Foolad, that read, “We are all Younes!”
Police then arrested several dozen men, beating them on their backs and heads. The police seem to have particularly targeted men dressed in traditional Arab clothing.
Many Arabs have alleged that the Iranian government systematically discriminates against them, particularly in employment, housing, access to political office, and the exercise of cultural, civil and political rights. The inability to use their mother language as a medium of instruction for primary education is also a source of resentment.
Arabs comprise about 2 percent of Iran’s population, with most living in Khuzestan province or in Hormuzgan province along the Persian Gulf coast._ The Islamic Republic is mainly concerned about Arabs in Khuzestan because that is the locale of most oilfields. The government has been encouraging more Farsi-speakers to move to Khuzestan.