LONDON: For the third day running, hundreds have demonstrated again in Iran’s mainly Arab provinces against what they called the Iranian authority’s marginalization of Iranians of Arab origin and its efforts to erase their Arab identity according to media reports.
Iranians from Ahwas chanted slogans in Farsi and Arabic against what they called “organized state alienations of people” from the three mainly Arab provinces of Bushahr, Khosistan, and Hermosjan. The demonstrators accused officials of systematically alienating Iranian citizens of Arab ethnicity.
A group that calls itself 'Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation' (AHRO) said that security forces have been using force against the demonstrators, the organization have been posting photos and videos of the demonstrations on its social media page.
Clashes with police broke out in various Ahwasi cities in protest against a cartoon TV show that locals say uses figurines to misrepresent various ethnicities in Iran, which they deem unfavorable to their Arab national origin.
Ahwaz has witnessed various demonstration and clashes with authorities over the past few years. The area has 90% of Iran’s oil and gas reserves.
But the area is suffering from years of neglect by the Tehran regime whom the locals accuse of discrimination, high unemployment levels and efforts to re-draw the demographic map of the area.