DEATH OF A POET IN IRAN New York Dr. Cesar Chelala “I have tried to defend the legitimate right that every people in this world should have, which is the right to live freely with full civil rights. With all these miseries and tragedies, I have never used a weapon to fight these atrocious crimes except the pen,” wrote Hashem Shaabani, a young Iranian Ahwazi Arab poet from an Iranian prison. On January 27, 2014 he was hanged along with 14 other prisoners, accused of “waging war on God”. Radio Free Europe reported that he had been sentenced by an Islamic Revolutionary Tribunal. Shaabani’s fate was shared by dozens of killings of Ahwazis, many of them on trumped up charges. There have been demonstrations in Iran against the Iranian government’s discrimination against its Arab minority, particularly regarding employment, housing and basic civil and political rights. Repression against Ahwazis has been brutal. This fact has been repeatedly denounced by Human Rights Watch, which has called on Iranian authorities to allow independent international media and human rights organizations access to investigate allegations of serious rights violations in Khuzestan province. Khuzestan, where most Ahwazi Arabs live in Iran, is located in the southwest of the country and is rich in oil and gas. The Iranian government discriminates against anyone who is not Persian, says Taha Amjad, a spokesman for the London-based European Ahwazi Human Rights Organization (EAHRO).” It is telling that although Kuzhestan is rich in oil and gas, its people are among the poorest in the country, and have very low literacy levels.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Feb 2014 07:35:14 +0000