Little-known Arab group in Iran faces persecution / Ahwazis call occupation of their land a plight worse than that of Palestinians
Little-known Arab group in Iran faces persecution / Ahwazis call occupation of their land a plight worse than that of Palestinians: "For decades, the Persian shahs and ayatollahs of Iran have uprooted Ahwazi Arabs from their oil-rich region in the southwest corner of the country, forcing an estimated 1.5 million people off the land where their families have lived for generations.
The result, Ahwazi activists say, is the occupation of an Arab homeland in the heart of the Middle East that almost nobody knows about -- an occupation, Ahwazis contend, that has stripped Arabs of more land than is at issue in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
'They came at me like a pack of wolves,' said Abu Tarek, who asks that his family name be withheld out of concern for his safety.
Abu Tarek is a native of the region that borders Iraq, Kuwait and the Persian Gulf, once known as Arabistan after its ethnic majority but renamed Khuzestan by the Iranian government. As a campaigner for the rights and autonomy of Ahwazis, Khuzestan's Arab-majority population, he was considered a grave threat to Iran's national security. "
The result, Ahwazi activists say, is the occupation of an Arab homeland in the heart of the Middle East that almost nobody knows about -- an occupation, Ahwazis contend, that has stripped Arabs of more land than is at issue in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
'They came at me like a pack of wolves,' said Abu Tarek, who asks that his family name be withheld out of concern for his safety.
Abu Tarek is a native of the region that borders Iraq, Kuwait and the Persian Gulf, once known as Arabistan after its ethnic majority but renamed Khuzestan by the Iranian government. As a campaigner for the rights and autonomy of Ahwazis, Khuzestan's Arab-majority population, he was considered a grave threat to Iran's national security. "
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