Discrimination against Ahwazi by Iranian Clinic Personnel

According to Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ”everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty” (The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10th December 1948).

Owirka in 1989 defined discrimination ”as an unjust or prejudicial treatment between different groups of people through the lack of cognition and the lack of understanding, especially on the grounds of differences between race, religion, and culture between different groups”.

The discrimination in Ahwaz has been started since the occupation in 1925. Ahwazi people have been suffering from receiving equal social life such as jobs, sports, and other ordinary life; suffering from poor economy while majority of Iranian yearly income come from Al-Ahwaz, suffering from political harshness of the Iranian both regimes, the Iranian both regimes begun to change the demographic of the lands in Al-Ahwaz in based of racism ideology against Arab, many lands in Al-Ahwaz have been confiscated, the name of the places have been changed from Arabic name to the Persian, study in the mother tongue became forbidden for Ahwazi although Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights pointed out that all people are entitled to receive all the rights and freedoms without distinction of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion.

Moreover, the discrimination in Ahwaz in the base of ethnicity and religion has increased, which have caused difficulties for Ahwazi Arab people. More recently, an Ahwazi old man named Mr Abdulkarim Ameri, who is an Ahwazi retirement, was hospitalised at Azadi Hospital in West Tehran, the capital city of Iran. Therefore, his family informed that on 10th December 2016, Mr Ameri was tortured by the Hospital Personnel because of his identity and cultural issue in which caused Mr Ameri to be in coma since 10th December.

Violations of human rights in Ahwaz in general have reached a serious stage, which caused many Ahwazi to face difficulties how to deal with the issue. For instance, all Iranian governmental intuitions, organisations, and the media, and even clinic staff

are dealing with Ahwazi by discrimination and racism. However, according to the Iranian Constitutional law, no-one should face difficulty or discrimination because of having different religion or different ethnic groups, as well as, article 15 and 19 of the Iranian Constitutional Law offer free culture for all people in Iran.

The Iranian authorities in 1979 offer two Articles to protect the language and culture of Non-Persian people in Iran. However, both articles are not activated since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution law states that the “Official language and writing script (of Iran)… is Persian…[and]… the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian. .”

Article 19 of the Constitution law states that ‘’the people of Iran enjoy equal rights, regardless of the tribe or ethnic group to which they belong. Colour, race, language, and other such considerations shall not be grounds for special privileges’’.

According to International Human Rights Law, disabled people should not face discrimination, as well as should not facing discrimination because of having different Identity or language differences.

International instruments in international human rights law offer Articles to protect disabled people and protect people from any cultural, political and civil discrimination, in which are including:

– Universal Declaration of Human Rights

– International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

– International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

– The right to Equality and Non-discrimination

– Convention against Torture

– International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance

– Migration and International Human Rights Law

– Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women

– Convention on the Rights of the Child

– UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

International obligations on Iran

The Iranian government has already signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hence, Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights obliged Iran to offer people to receive all the rights and freedoms without distinction of race, colour, sex, language, and religion, political or other opinion.

Iran is the State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Iran signed the covenant on 4th April 1968, ratified the covenant on 24th June 1975 and entry into force on 23rd March 1976.

The Iranian authorities are obliged to protect disabled people and also protect people from any violation because of having different culture, ethnic groups or language. Iran signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on 4th April 1968 and ratified on 24th June 1975.

Iran is also obliged to protect people from any discrimination because Iran is already signed the right to Equality and Non-discrimination except the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Iran has also signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to prevent discrimination against them.

Condemnations and Recommendations

The Ahwazi Organisation for the Defence of Human Rights condemns the ill-treatments against Mr AbdulKarim Ameri in which caused him to be in coma since 10th December 2016. At the same time, the Ahwazi Organisation for the Defence of Human Rights condemns the increasing racism and discrimination in Iran against Ahwazi Arab in particular and non-Persian people in general.

The Ahwazi Organisation for the Defence of Human Rights has urged the International Organisations to put Iran under pressure to activate its two Articles of the Constitution law that offer Non-Persian ethnic groups to study and live with their language and culture.

The Ahwazi Organisation for the Defence of Human Rights has demand for monitoring and punishing the Iranian Clinic Personnel who tortured the Ahwazi patient at the hospital because of his ethnic and culture differences. Not to pursue the case is violation of international human rights law which International Human Rights Law offer an Article to protect disabled people from any culture or governmental violation of human rights.

Another recommendation of the Ahwazi Organisation for Defense of Human Rights also contain pressure on Iran to respect international resolutions/International Human Rights Law that have been signed by Iranian government which including:

protecting disabled from facing any discrimination because of their health, culture and identity.

Additional Information

Ahwaz is an Arab land that located in the South- West and South Iran. The name of Al-Ahwaz has changed to Khuzestan, Bushehr and Hormozgan in 1935 after invading the land in 1925. The Iranian both regimes such as Pahlavi era and Islamic republic era used different ways to suppress Ahwazi voices.

Having racism and discrimination ideology against Arabs is not only including the Iranian authorities but even among Iranian poets and writers are visible. For instance, Ferdosi the Iranian historical poet had many poems against Arabs; current Iranian poets have made several poems against Arabs. Iranian cinema has also made several films against Arabs like Arose Atash film (bride in the faire) just to insult Ahwazi culture.