Amidst the heightened attention given by the international community, human rights organisations, and global media to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the dark clouds of injustice gather over the forgotten Ahwazi Arab people. The Iranian regime seizes this opportune moment to escalate its systematic assault on their human rights. Within the shadows of the Iranian regime’s oppression, Ahwazi Arab prisoners bear the heavy weight of their dissent, paying a dear price: their lives for the crime of challenging Iran’s decades-long torrent of ethnic persecution unleashed upon the Ahwazi people.
Ahwazi rights groups reported that on 28 November, Hani Albushahbazi, a 32-year-old political prisoner from Falahiyeh City, was executed by the Iranian regime at Sepidar prison.
Before his arrest, Hani was a dedicated Ahwazi activist who had gained recognition for his efforts and roles in organising protests against the confiscation of Ahwazi farmers’ lands by the Iranian regime to facilitate the expansion of sugarcane companies in the Ahwazi Arab areas.
This sugarcane project, which initially promised to bring development and create jobs for the local Ahwazi Arab people, eventually revealed its true intentions of seeking other aims. It resulted in the confiscation of Ahwazi Arab lands, leaving them landless in a colonial policy aimed at driving the Ahwazi people from their ancestral lands.
Having been arrested multiple times, Hani tirelessly rallied the local Ahwazi Arab farmers in demands for the return of their lands and compensation for the environmental damage caused by the sugar cane companies. These damages included water and air pollution, which, in turn, contributed to increased instances of cancer among the local population.
Furthermore, Hani participated in a protest in 2019 in his hometown, Falahiyeh, to show solidarity with Ahwazi protesters in Ma’shour city. During the protests, the suppressive forces of the Iranian regime brutally killed approximately 140 Ahwazi protesters. In protest against employment discrimination and bringing in workers from Persian areas, the local Ahwazi protesters resorted to blocking roads and routes designated for transporting petrochemical products produced by the petrochemical companies.
As expected, the regime responded with excessive force, resulting in the arrest and death of a considerable number of protesters. These Ahwazi individuals were falsely accused of seeking to destabilise Iran’s economy. Hani himself was arrested during the 2019 protests, where he was accused of inciting people against the Iranian security forces. He was charged with vague allegations of corruption on earth, posing a threat to Iran’s national security and displaying separatist tendencies.
It is important to note that these charges are often used as a means to suppress and silence Ahwazi Arab activists. After spending four years in solitary confinement, enduring forced confessions under torture, denial of legal representation, and limited contact with his family, Hani was ultimately executed by Iran.
In the internationally neglected tale of Ahwazis, Iran relentlessly suppresses their fundamental human rights, ceaselessly aiming to eliminate their very existence. The majority of oppressed Ahwazis not only suffer from the cruel seizure of their lands and exploitation of their natural resources but are also condemned to a life of marginalisation and impoverishment. When Ahwazi people dare to raise their voices in protest against such tyranny, the remorseless regime swiftly deploys its arsenal of fabricated accusations, leading to the arrest and eventual execution of Ahwazi activists.