Lies of the Mullahs’, ‘an Islamic revolution’ to support minorities

With his sugar-coated promises, Ruhollah Khomeini promised Iranians that he would end the era of persecution and Persian intolerance and support ethnic minorities and their rights by ousting Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and establishing a country of justice and faith. This granted him the support of the Iranian street.

Iran’s Arabs have put their faith in the so-called ‘Islamic Revolution’, which turned out to be a typical Persian-Shiite revolution that carried its own sectarian project that contradicts its slogans about Islamic unity.

After Khomeini got the support of Arabs against the regime of the Shah, he met a delegation from Ahvaz who wanted to congratulate him, however, and despite his ability to do so, he refused to speak with them in Arabic, and insisted to talk in Persian, the matter which irritated the Arab delegation. It was a message that Arabs do not have a place in this country.

Practically, Khomeini initiated a policy of Persianizing Arab territories, as he banned teaching Arabic in schools, using it on occasions or even naming children with Arabic names.

The Ahvazi Arab scene has witnessed many revolutions and rebellions, in a sign that the Arabs of the Ahvaz region are determined to continue their struggle against the Iranian occupation.

Iran includes four other main people, namely the Turks, Baluchis, Kurds and Turkmen, all with their own languages, cultures, customs and traditions.

There are no official records of total population in Iran, as only Persians are being counted, as the government sees that national affiliations threaten to split the country, not to mention that Persians only represent half of the actual population of Iran.

Therefore, the Mullahs’ regime divided the administrative units to ensure the dispersal and dismantling of ethnic minorities in various parts of the country. It incorporated Kurdish towns like Mahabad and Sardasht into Azerbaijan. Moreover, the Sistan-Baluchistan region also got divided into three provinces, only to weaken non-Persian components.

During the reigns of Komeini and Kamenei, many protests took place within ethnic minority areas, which were brutally attacked and suppressed by forces of the Revolutionary Guard and Basij. Often, oppressed minorities get subjected to arbitrary arrest, execution, rape and assassination during these crackdowns.

Over the past 40 years, the Mullahs’ regime has continued its discriminatory policies and systematic persecution against minorities, a policy that it still pursues today.

During 2018 alone, the Iranian government arrested more than 7,000 dissidents in a sweeping crackdown that ended in masses being jailed or flogged, a minimum of 26 protesters being killed and nine other folks loss of life in custody amid suspicious cases, a report by Amnesty Global said.

Hundreds of people from ethnic minority groups including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds and Turkmen have also faced human rights abuses including discrimination and arbitrary detention.