Fatema Tamimi, a journalist, director, Ahwazi Arab social activist, and women's rights activist, was arrested by Iranian security forces at her home in the town of Jarahi (Chamran) on the evening of December 10, 2020, and transferred to an unknown location. Mrs. Tamimi 39, a mother of two, has produced several short documentaries on poverty, addiction, unemployment, persecution and discrimination of Ahwazi Arab minority in Iran. She also works in the local press and social media as a news photographer, reporter, director and cultural activist. The floods of the past years in Ahwaz region and the surrounding cities are also one of the most important issues that Tamimi has addressed and documented and reported on. In her reports, in addition to the causes of floods and related events, he discusses the effects and consequences of floods on social structures in Arab regions. Fatema Tamimi has been working for local newspapers since the 1990s, and more than 25,000 people follow her Instagram page, where her reports are published.
Ahwaz Human Rights Organization condemns the detention of Fatema Tamimi and all cultural, political and social activists and demands her immediate and unconditional release.
Iranian intelligence arrested the Ahwazi writer and civil activist, Abbas Saedi, on Wednesday, November 11, at seven in the morning. Intelligence agents raided Saedi's house and beat his grandmother, who tried to prevent them from storming the house and inquired about the reason for the raid. They also confiscated all of the family members' phones. It is reported that Abbas Saedi (30 years old) has a BA in law and is a civil activist and writer of short stories. He lives in the town of Hamidiyeh and has written articles for local Arab and Persian websites for years. He also had a channel via Telegram, called 'Shakhabit', in which he published his writings, and the security forces arrested him for that years ago, and kept his case open. Saedi was facing many difficulties, including his dismissal from work in a dispensary in Ahwaz. This led to a living crisis for the family, being the eldest son who supports them. Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO) condemns the arrest of Mr Abbas Saedi, and demands the immediate release of him and all prisoners of conscience, political prisoners and human rights defenders in Iran. Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO) 11 Nov 2020
Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) recieved a new clip shows the Iranian security and IRGC shoot the Ahwazi Arab peaceful protesters in Jarrahi town in Mahshahr on 18 Nov 2019 and committed a massacre and killed more the 100 including children and women. Watch the video here: https://twitter.com/AhwazAhro/status/1313135585670959105 In February 2020, the United States has sanctioned Gen. Hassan Shahvarpour, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the Ahwaz region, (province of Khuzestan) on its sanctions list for his involvement in human rights violations and the commission of the November 2019 massacre in Maashur (Mahshar). Brian Hook, the former US special representative for Iran, said at a press conference that Shahvarpour was put on a list of sanctions related to visas because he had "committed gross human rights violations against demonstrators." He added that Shahwarpour supervised a massacre of 148 unarmed citizens in the Maashur area last November. Iran had acknowledged the occurrence of the massacre of Maashur when the Special Security Forces and the Revolutionary Guards stormed the town of Al-Jarahi and other towns of Maashur, such as Koura and Khor Musa, and used tanks, machine guns and heavy weaponry to kill dozens of Arab citizens, including women and children. Hook said that the US State Department based in its decision to impose sanctions on Shahwarpour on information obtained from Iranian civilian messages about the demonstrations, pointing to the fact that they received more than 88 thousand messages from social media from Iranian people about the suppression of demonstrations in Iran.
Following the massacre, Iran sent its Special Security Forces and the Revolutionary Guards to storm the town of Jarrahi and other towns of Maashur, and used tanks, machine guns and heavy weaponry to siege and kill the Arab citizens in those areas. During November 2019 protests, Iran’s security forces and revolutionary guards unlawfully resorted to lethal force to crush nationwide protests, killing at least 23 children among other 1500. Those children aged between 12 and 17. At least 5 of those children were Ahwazi Arabs.
Ahwaz Human Rights Organization strongly condemns the mass killing that took place against the demonstrators in Maashur and stresses that the excessive violence committed against the Ahwazi demonstrators amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity. he organization calls on international human rights bodies to condemn these massacres and the need for the international community and the Human Rights Council to take steps towards sending a truth commission and bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
On 26 August the Iranian security forces attacked the residents of “Abolfazel” village in the suburbs of Ahwaz city.
On Wednesday, the residents resisted the confiscation of their agricultural land and homes which resulted in the arrest of dozen and the injury of several people.
The Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation received several videos showing wounded individuals, and tear gas being thrown on the villagers, following their complaints about the vandalisation of their home by the security forces.
“Mostazafan Foundation” which is affiliated with “Ali Khemenei”, the supreme leader of Islamic Republic of Iran is claiming the ownership of the village.
“Abolfazel” village is home to 300 families. The residents assert that they have the ownership documents of their lands and home and have been living in this area for more than four decades, “Mostazafan Foundation” on the other hand claims the full ownership of the village and prevents the provision of services and water for agricultural means.
According to the residents this is not the first time that they have faced such attacks. Since the Iraq- Iran war and in the year 1988 under the pretext of “war zone”, the authorities confiscated thousands of Hectares of land. And since the beginning of 1990’s the authorities yet again confiscated thousands of Hectares for national projects such as sugarcane production which led to the displacement of villagers .
The step of the “Mostazafin Foundation” comes in the context of seizing the lands of the villages adjacent to the Ahwazi cities after the recent increase in the prices of those lands. Ahwaz Human Rights Org 28/8/2020
Following the bloody crackdown on prisoners in Ahwaz’s Central prison last Tuesday, a large number of political prisoners from the prison have been transferred to the intelligence services’ secret detention centres and have been subject to torture in the past few days, local sources have informed the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO).
Authorities also plan to transfer the prisoners out of Ahwaz and to other prisons in the country, the sources added.
Some of the prisoners transferred to the intelligence services’ detention centres include Mohammad Ali Amouri, Abdolzahra Helechi, Jaber Alboshoka and Mokhtar Alboshoka.
Local sources reported that several prisoners have been wounded and killed.
The families of these prisoners fear that their children will be harmed or killed under torture.
Political prisoner Eissa Damni has already been transferred to Takab prison in West Azerbaijan province, based on the latest information received by AHRO.
Dozens of prisoners were killed and wounded by security forces in Ahwaz’s Central and Sepidar prison following protests over lack of health facilities and authorities’ refusal to send prisoners on temporary leave amid the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 18 people were killed in Sepidar prison and five in the Central prison last Monday, according to AHRO’s sources. About 400 wounded were also taken to hospitals.
Local sources reported that dozens of inmates, especially in Ward 5, which holds the majority of political prisoners, were shot and wounded by security forces.
AHRO condemns the killing and brutal acts against prisoners and calls on the international community, human rights organizations and institutions to condemn these actions and put pressure on the Iranian authorities to release all prisoners immediately and unconditionally to save them from the coronavirus.
Two coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the political prisoners’ section of the Ahwaz central prison in the Shiban district, putting all the other prisoners at the risk of contracting the virus, local sources told the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO).
The two infected prisoners are Milad Baghlani and Hamid Reza Makki.
Prison authorities were very late in isolating and getting medical help for the two prisoners which has worsened their condition and increased the risk of the virus spreading to everyone else in the prison, local sources told AHRO.
Prison authorities have also refused to test the prisoners who shared a cell with Baghlani and Makki for coronavirus.
Local sources added that prison authorities have sent one of the infected prisoners to a hospital after his health deteriorated, but still refuse to send the other infected prisoner to a hospital or put him in quarantine. This has increased the risk of the virus infecting other prisoners.
Families of political prisoners in Ahwaz have expressed concern over the risk of their loved ones contracting the virus.
The families have visited courthouses and gone to the relevant judicial authorities in the past few days to check on the health conditions of their imprisoned loved ones and to ask for their release, but to no avail.
“I went to branch 12 of the revolutionary court in Ahwaz to follow up on my son’s case and I found many other families of Arab political prisoners in there trying to see the judge,” the father of an Arab prisoner arrested in the Kut Abdollah district in Ahwaz during last November’s protests told AHRO.
“Most of the families in the court were there to inquire about the health of their loved ones in prison due to coronavirus fears, but they were not allowed to see the judge,” he added.
The lawyer of an Ahwazi Arab political prisoner told AHRO: “We have to demand the relevant authorities in the Iranian judiciary not to send anymore prisoners to prisons – especially Sepidar and Shiban prisons in Ahwaz – due to coronavirus concerns.”
“We must ask the public prosecutor in Ahwaz to monitor the health and safety of prisoners, and to give them access to medical equipment and the guidelines and means necessary to fight coronavirus,” the lawyer added.
Sepidar and Shiban prisons in Ahwaz were filled with detainees after the anti-government protests last November.
The prison staff at Shiban prison are also known to torture and discriminate against Arab political prisoners.
Fearing a coronavirus outbreak in prisons, the families of the prisoners demand the Iranian judiciary to monitor the health conditions in Shiban and Sepidar prisons.
The families also demand that all political prisoners and other non-dangerous prisoners are released as part of a recently issued pardon – a pardon which has not included the majority of political prisoners.
A delegation from AHRO that participated in the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 11 warned in a statement that prisoners in Ahwaz are at risk of contracting coronavirus because the Iranian authorities are not taking appropriate measures to protect them.
AHRO also called on the Human Rights Council and other international bodies to pressure the Iranian authorities for the immediate release of all political prisoners and all prisoners who have not committed serious crimes in Iran in order to prevent the spread of the epidemic in prisons.
Lebanese security forces have arrested two Ahwazi refugees in Beirut prior to their departure to the US after they obtained asylum through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with the registered number 09-09C0055LE.
The two refugees are sisters Maryam and Nahayat Afri.
The Afri sisters have lived in Lebanon for over a decade and were recently granted asylum in the US.
Maryam and Nahayat were set to leave Lebanon for the US and even had plane tickets booked.
Friends and relatives of the Afri sisters told the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) that the Lebanese security forces stormed their house over a week ago and took them to an unknown destination.
Nothing is known about their fate until this moment, they added.
Neighbours of Maryam and Nahayat confirmed that the Lebanese general security stormed the sisters’ home and arrested them despite the fact that they were under the protection of the UNHCR in Beirut.
AHRO strongly condemns the arrest of Maryam and Nahayat Afri and calls on the Lebanese authorities to immediately intervene to release and allow them to safely leave to the US where they have been granted asylum.
AHRO also holds the Lebanese authorities responsible for the safety of Maryam and Nahayat Afri, who face the danger of being extradited to Iran under pressure from certain parties.
AHRO also calls on the UNHCR and the US government to intervene to release the Afri sisters and ensure they arrive safely to the US.
Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) 25 January 2020
Ahwaz Human Rights Organization welcomes the United States' inclusion of the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Ahwaz region, (province of Khuzestan), Hassan Shahwarpour, on its sanctions list for his involvement in human rights violations and the commission of the November 2019 massacre in Maashur (Mahshar)
Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, said at a press conference on Friday that Shahwarpour was put on a list of sanctions related to visas because he had "committed gross human rights violations against demonstrators."
He added that Shahwarpour supervised a massacre of 148 unarmed citizens in the Maashur area last November.
Iran had acknowledged the occurrence of the massacre of Maashur when the Special Security Forces and the Revolutionary Guards stormed the town of Al-Jarahi and other towns of Maashur, such as Koura and Khor Musa, and used tanks, machine guns and heavy weaponry to kill dozens of Arab citizens, including women and children.
Hook said that the US State Department based in its decision to impose sanctions on Shahwarpour on information obtained from Iranian civilian messages about the demonstrations, pointing to the fact that they received more than 88 thousand messages from social media from Iranian people about the suppression of demonstrations in Iran.
Ahwaz Human Rights Organization strongly condemns the mass killing that took place against the demonstrators in Maashur and stresses that the excessive violence committed against the Ahwazi demonstrators amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The organization calls on international human rights bodies to condemn these massacres and the need for the international community and the Human Rights Council to take steps towards sending a truth commission and bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
Ahwaz Human Rights sources have reported that detainees in various areas of Ahwaz (Khuzestan province) continue to suffer the consequences of the protests that took place in November, 2019.
The November protests were a response to the death of a well-renowned Ahwazi-Arab poet, Hassan Heydari, whose death in November 10, 2019, had been suspected as a murder by the Iranian regime. The Arab population had demonstrated their public outrage by following his funeral with a mass demonstration condemning the Islamic Republic. It was the youths of the Arab community that had largely dominated the funeral and demonstrations, displaying their outrage by burning the Islamic Republic flag and carrying ethnic slogans. Arrests had already taken place during Heidari's funeral, yet, many youths awaited for a new wave of arrests by security authorities for their participation in the demonstration that followed it.
A large number of activists and ordinary people fled their homes until protests began to rise threefold across the country on November 24, when Arab youths took to the streets again to protest. The Iranian regime were provided with an opportunity to arrest many more Arab protesters, whilst, at the same time cause many others to flee their homes and become displaced. Many ordinary people attempt to abolish or arrest detainees through their trusted intermediaries during the custody of their children and their families by the Intelligence Service (SAS) or the Ministry of Intelligence (Wajah) through their trusted intermediaries. Although, many of these efforts were unsuccessful despite paying huge bribes.
However, what drew the attention and pursuit of independent activists and observers was that some detainees were released shortly after being arrested and released on bail. After much investigation and questioning by Ahwazi-Arab human rights activists in the province, it was revealed that they had to make televised confessions and confessions during the "Reality .." program on the Twenty-Thirty News Network. In fact, the detainees were immediately released on the condition that they televise their confessions and their sentences shall be suspended once they pledge not to engage in any socio-political activity, with warnings that they could be detained for any reason. While executing the former sentence, they will face new and heavier sentences.
An Arab activist linked to the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization was able to meet with a trusted intermediary from security forces who received millions of dollars in news reports from families or through cancelling temporary detention orders. The activist questioned the reason for the release of some detainees and continued detention of detainees who responded that security forces were "pressing" and "promising" to put pressure on detainees to record television confessions. Some detainees accepted the offer to make a televised confession in exchange for being released, whilst, others remain in detention for refusing to accept those conditions. The interlocutor also added that some detainees have not been released despite accepting and confessing to television because security forces believe there are ambiguities in their case that I (the mediator) will not disclose. The Arab-based human rights activist linked to the AHRO organization added that he had two meetings with one of the runaway Arab activists present at the Hasan Heydari funeral and participating in the November demonstrations. The young man reported that security forces had stormed not only his home, but the homes of his close relatives, more than 10 times, in order to arrest him. He says he cannot give himself up to security forces because he is certain that he will be subjected to severe torture and eventually sentenced to long prison terms. The young man, who is not interested in emigrating from the country, says he is trying to find a solution through a trusted middleman. He added that the security broker asked him for one billion Iranian riyals (about $ 8,000) and told him that in addition, he would have to surrender himself to the security forces to record televised confessions, as well as confessing against some of his friends to file a case.
A 45-year-old Ahwazi citizen by the name of Ghasem Bawi has committed suicide due to the torture he endured during his arrest by the Iranian authorities, the Ahwaz Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) sources reported.
Bawi was arrested during the November anti-government protests in Ahwaz. He committed suicide a few days after his release due to the physical and psychological torture he endured during his arrest.
Bawi was arrested by mistake as he was passing by a demonstration in the Kut Abdollah area. He was not involved in the protests.
According to AHRO’s sources, Bawi, who was detained in a security centre for 10 days, had been suffering severe seizures for several weeks after his release until his suicide. He was deprived of sleep as a result.
According to eyewitnesses, Bawi suffered from nightmares and constantly recalled his torture in detention, as well as the torture and screams of detained children and women.
Bawi said that he used to hear them constantly in the cell but as the place was completely dark, he could not see anything or anybody.
Bawi committed suicide by shooting himself in the head on December 13 and his body was buried on December 15.
What happened to Ghasem Bawi is a clear example of the cruel arrests and brutal torture of peaceful Ahwazi citizens and protesters by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Following the nationwide anti-government protests last month, about 2,500 Arab citizens have been arrested in various parts of the Ahwaz province, and about 70 to 100 Ahwazi protesters have been killed by security forces and the IRGC.
