Free Republic

A shocking video captured an Iranian man grinning as he walked through the streets clutching the severed head of his 17-year-old wife — whom he decapitated in an “honor killing,” according to a report. The gruesome footage shows Sajjad Heydari strolling through a neighborhood in Ahvaz, a city in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, on Saturday with Mona Heydari’s head in one hand and a blade in the other, East2West News reported. Mona, who also was Sajjad’s cousin, had been forced to marry him when she was just 12 years old, according to the Women’s Committee of the National Council...

Last week, Ebrahim Raisi officially took over the government of Iran. With blood still dripping from his hands from the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, he is recognized ‎as the most hated president in Iran. Unfortunately, Western countries have turned a ‎blind eye to the crimes committed by Raisi, and the European Union has sent Enrique ‎Mora, its deputy secretary-general of the External Action Service to Tehran as the EU ‎representative for the inauguration ceremony. ‎ Amnesty International issued a statement protesting the dispatching of an EU envoy to ‎attend the inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi. On June 19, 2021, the...

..... In 1908, Khaz’al ibn Haji Jabir Khan, Sheikh of the Kasebite klan of the Banu Ka’b tribe of Arabs, became a wealthy man.... ..... The last Pahlavi dynasty was run out of town in 1978 by Ayatollah Khomeini, and the Islamic Republic took possession of the oil fields of Khuzestan, still cutting the indigenous Arabs out of any share in the profits, but letting them live among the pollution and debris. So much for the historical background. How to describe the present? A nightmare. The Kasebite/K’aba Arabs still receive none of the income from these oil wells, but must...

Iran has discovered a new oil field in the country’s south with over 50 billion barrels of crude, its president said Sunday, a find that could boost the country’s proven reserves by a third as it struggles to sell energy abroad over U.S. sanctions. The announcement by Hassan Rouhani comes as Iran faces crushing American sanctions after the U.S. pulled out of its nuclear deal with world powers last year. Rouhani made the announcement in a speech in the desert city of Yazd. He said the field was located in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province, home to its crucial oil industry....

Despite their lofty rhetoric, Iranian leaders have failed to address their own oppression and discrimination against the Arabs whose oil-rich land they have exploited for decades. iran’s meddling across the Middle East is increasing. Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen seize ships, Iranian proxies fire missiles into neighboring countries, and the Islamic Republic continues to seek a land bridge to the Mediterranean. Enabling Tehran’s malign outreach is its oil wealth. Iran possesses the fourth largest known oil reserves in the world. Eighty percent of Iran’s oil is found in Khuzestan, the southwestern province at the head of the Gulf. A century ago, the...

Tragedy struck Iran’s Arab-majority province of Khuzestan on Sunday as a fruit vendor died after self-immolating outside the local municipality building. Like Mohamed Bouazizi – the Tunisian fruit seller whose death sparked the Arab Spring – Younes Asakereh’s suicide was an act of defiance in response to authorities who denied him his livelihood. In contrast to Tunisia, however, Asakereh’s suicide sparked no national revolution. Instead, his death will likely be yet another example of regime neglect over a strategic but forgotten province... Nonetheless, rather than cultivate this underdeveloped province, Iran’s leadership has consistently given higher priority to interests beyond the...

The British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS) has launched an Ahwazi Rights Declaration, following a consultation process with the Ahwazi Arab community. It sets out Ahwazi demands for self-determination, human rights, democracy, freedom of association, freedom of worship, women's rights, redistribution of oil wealth and peace in Iran. The Declaration will form the basis of lobbying and advocacy activity for Ahwazi Arab rights. Click here to sign the declaration. Having regard to Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution permitting "the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in...

TEHRAN, Nov 11 (Reuters) - A percussion bomb exploded in a residential area in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, the heartland of Iran's oil industry, but no one was hurt, state media said on Saturday. Ahvaz is the capital of Khuzestan, which has been simmering with unrest among the province's mostly Arab population for more than a year. Iran has blamed Britain, which has troops in neighbouring Iraq, for fomenting the instability. Britain denies the accusation. "A percussion bomb exploded at 23:46 local time in Ahvaz on Friday. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident," state radio quoted Ahvaz...

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The southwestern Khuzestan Province has been the site of deadly bombings in the past year, in addition to demonstrations that have included antigovernment protests. Two men were executed over their alleged roles in bombings, in October, after their heavily edited confessions were televised along with those of their suspected cohorts. Ahvaz Prosecutor-General Iraj Amirkhani announced on state radio on May 1 that 25 people have been arrested in connection with bombings that took place as recently as January. Several days later, on May 3, the official government newspaper reported the arrest of a "Wahhabi...

The Iranian regime is stepping up its land confiscation programme in order to expand Persian settlements in Al-Ahwaz (Khuzestan), despite condemnation by the UNCHR and European Parliament last year. The Shahinshahr and Ramin settlements are the focus of a new wave of land confiscations, in addition to the ethnic cleansing being carried out along the Arvand Free Trade Zone along the Shatt Al-Arab. The regime is encouraging ethnic Persians to settle on the land confiscated from Ahwazi Arab farmers by placing advertisements in Faris-speaking provinces and cities. The adverts promise cheap fully furnished apartments with all amenities, which is in...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Two bombs exploded in a bank and outside a government building Tuesday, killing six people and injuring 46 in a southwestern city with a history of violence involving members of Iran's Arab minority, the official news agency reported. The president had been expected to meet his Cabinet in the city on Tuesday but canceled the visit. Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said the attacks in Ahvaz, the capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province which borders Iraq, were foreign-inspired and related to last year's bombings in the same city. Ahvaz was the scene of bombings in June and October...

TEHRAN, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Bombs exploded in a bank and government building in the southern Iranian city of Ahvaz on Tuesday, killing four people, state media said. State television put the number killed at four and police spokesman Mehdi Ahmadi said the toll was higher than two. Ahvaz, and the surrounding province of Khuzestan, is a scene of bitter struggles between Iranian authorities and the Islamic Republic's Arab minority. Iranian authorities are particularly sensitive about protests and discontent in Khuzestan because the region sits on most of the Islamic Republic's crude reserves, the second biggest in the world. The...

Iran arrests 20 over bombing blamed on UK By Parisa Hafezi Tue Oct 18, 2005 Iran said on Tuesday it had arrested more than 20 people in connection with deadly weekend bombings in southern Iran which the government has blamed on Britain. Saturday's blasts outside a shopping mall in the city of Ahvaz killed six people and wounded 100 and have prompted calls from Iran's hardline press for Tehran to sever ties with London. The incident has led to a new nadir in relations between Britain and Iran, already strained by London's criticism of Tehran's atomic programme and British accusations...

Top News Story Iranmania LONDON, October 16 (IranMania) -Iranian officials said on Sunday they suspected British involvement in a double bomb attack in the ethnic-Arab dominated city of Ahvaz, despite furious denials and condemnation of the attacks from London. Two bombs exploded outside a crowded market late Saturday in Ahvaz, capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province adjacent to British-occupied southern Iraq. Five people were killed and more than 100 injured, according to the latest official toll. "Since there are British troops present alongside our border, there is a concern over their involvement in the explosions in Ahvaz," Alaeddin Borujerdi,...

Iranian authorities have admitted that a series of explosions at oil wells around the province of Khuzestan were an attempt to sabotage oil production. Khuzestan is the centre of the Ahwazi Arab homeland and produces around 80-90 per cent of the country's oil output, representing up to 10-12 per cent of OPEC's total output. Iran is the world's fourth biggest crude producer with output capacity of around 4.2 million barrels per day. It exports 2.5 million barrels of oil per day - the equivalent of a fifth of the US's net oil imports - most of which originate from Khuzestan....

LONDON, August 14 (IranMania) - Iran on Sunday accused Britain and the United States of instigating recent ethnic clashes involving the country's Kurdish and Arab minorities. "We have information that the United States is interfering in the northwest of Iran. That is unacceptable and we are going to protest," said Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, according to AFP. "According to our reports the English have interfered in the troubles in Khuzestan and some (agitators) have been trained in bases under British control in Iraq," he added. The province of Khuzestan, where there is a large ethnic Arab community,...

[World News] Washington, April 20 : The US State Department has charged that Iran is violently suppressing the democratic rights of the Arab minority in the Khuzestan region of Iran. "We are very concerned by reports from Khuzestan in Iran of unrest in which several people have been killed and many more, perhaps even hundreds, have been arrested," State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli yesterday said. "In our view, this unrest and these arrests involve the denial of rights of minority groups in Iran. The group is an Arab group -- my understanding -- and that suppression of minority rights...

Fierce clashes have broken out between Iranian military forces and ethnic Arab Iranians who are calling for an independent state in southern Iran.Sources in the region said at least three ethnic Arabs had been killed and many injured in demonstrations in the southern province of Khuzestan. The demonstrations were called for by the London-based Popular Democratic Front of Ahwazi Arabs in Iran.More than 250 were reportedly arrested.A representative of the group, speaking to Aljazeera from London, said there were movements within and outside Iran pressing for independence of the region, home to at least three million Iranians of Arab descent."The demonstrations to...

More than 250 people were arrested Friday in southwestern Iran after demonstrations against an alleged plan to decrease the proportion of Arabs in the area became violent, a political activist said. Mohammad Navaseri said Arab residents of Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province, gathered Friday morning, chanting slogans against alleged government plans to move more non-Arabs in the city. He said they set fire to banks and police stations in Ahvaz before more than 250 of them were arrested. Another Ahvaz resident, Yousef Nabitaraf, said protesters smashed the windows of several banks and set at least one police station on...

5/28/2006 2:34:00 PM Cylindrical Seal with a Strange Design Discovered in DezfulArcheological excavations in Khuzestan province led to discovery of a cylindrical seal designed with a winged horse with a lion’s head and a cow’s hooves! Tehran, 28 May 2006 (CHN) -- Archeological excavations in Sanjar Tepe in Khuzestan province resulted in discovery of a cylindrical seal with the design of a winged horse on its end. Although it is not the first time archeologists are confronted with the design of a winged horse in Iran, what makes this one special compared to the previous ones is that this winged...