What Happened in 1925

About 6 weeks ago I posted something about what I learnt when I started researching through those Arabic books. Now its time that I let you know what I actually learned. It's quite fascinating and I learned a lot. It also wasn't as tiresome as I thought it would be.

So here goes, a brief history lesson for you all. The first time I heard about this, I found it hard to believe. Not because it didn't make sense, but because I found it hard to believe that I had gone through my life without hearing a single word about this, without knowing it ever existed. I shall assume that most of you don't know anything about it either; excuse me if you do.

Iran. A country the Arab world is not exactly good friends with. You could also generalize and include the rest of the world into the previous statement, with Iran's suspicious nuclear program and all. To keep things short, there was an Arab land in what is not southern and southwestern Iran. It was its own Arab state even before Islam. People aren't really sure how long ago they settled there, but "before Islam" is a long time ago anyways. At least I think so. It was called Ahwaz, or Arabistan. Now it is a province in Iran, called Khuzestan. Unfortunately. The difference between the two pictures I cannot explain. I have come to the conclusion through my research that the smaller area is only the land occupied by the ruling tribe بني كعب, and that the larger are is the whole state. At least that's what it seemed to me.

Iran was never quite friendly with Ahwaz. For centuries there had been growing tensions between them. In 1906, Ahwaz discovered oil, and the British helped them extract it. Ahwaz was always abundant in resources, fertile lands, plenty of rivers, and now they also had plenty of oil. Naturally, Iran wanted a share in all that. Sheikh Khaz'al (خزعل), ruler of Ahwaz at that time, felt that and asked the British for support. The British betrayed them and sided with Iran. Iran invaded the land and kidnapped Sheikh Khaz'al, detaining him in Tehran. Right now 87% or Iran's oil exports come from the Ahwaz area, it is quite obvious why Iran wanted it.

The Arabs lived in harsh conditions under the Iranian rule. They weren't allowed to dress in their traditional Arabic clothing, they weren't allowed to speak the Arabic language, and they weren't even allowed to teach it. Following the Iranian occupation by 20 to 30 years, the illiteracy rate had reached 85%. The Arabs weren't allowed to teach or learn Arabic in their schools, and they weren't even provided with proper education. They did not receive proper medical treatment either. They were treated as second-class citizens with much racism. They were stripped of their lands, which were subsequently given to Iranians. They weren't allowed to name their children with Arabic names. And they weren't issued with passports; to make sure that they didn't immigrate to other countries I would presume.

The people pleaded to the League of Nations about their problem, as well as to other countries and organizations. They weren't given much attention. One of the responses they received was that the issue of Palestine was more important than theirs. An Arab nation was compromised for another. The traces of that nation were silenced, by Iran and the other Arabs which refused to help. Only Iraq was able to provide them with some help, and also constructed a few Arabic schools for the Ahwaz Arabs; and even then, Iran hadn't made it easy for Iraq to do so. Whenever the Ahwaz Arabs tried to rebel and fight for their rights, they were killed, tortured, and massacred. The majority of them were left unemployed, and the ones that were lucky enough to have jobs received meager wages.

The thing that caught my attention the most though, was one sentence. One of the worst days experienced in Ahwaz was one called the "Black Wednesday". On that Wednesday, men had rebelled against the Iranian government, and in response they were forced to walk on foot for what seemed like an endless trip by foot. Most of them died on the way. One of their chants was, "يا عقال نسويلك هيبه". When I read this, I was surprised, proud, ashamed, awed, and I don't know what else really. In times of oppression, they chose the عقال as their symbol, to show their pride in their lineage. I could go on with this really. This phrase has become my favorite. I wish all Arab men were as courageous and proud of who they were as these were.

I still cannot understand why no one knows about this place. The year 1925 isn't that long ago, and the oppression still exists in that part of what is now Iran. During my studies I had to come to two conclusions that were unsupported by any of the texts I used for research. Not unsupported, but the information I was looking for was all but nonexistent. I concluded that these oppressed Arabs escaped from Iran (maybe illegally) to the other side of the Arabian Gulf. Notice, we call it the Arabian Gulf, so it makes sense for both sides to have been Arabian, correct? I also hypothesized that, as a result of them being about 85% illiterate in both Arabic and Persian, they created their own language with was a mix of two. You can probably understand what I'm getting at. I still cannot make out how a whole language was created in a generation or two, based on what my hypothesis is supposed to mean. However, my research was not about linguistics so I couldn't really do a deeper study on that. This is just a conclusion I came to since the evidence was kind of pointing in this direction, but since I have no conclusive evidence I cannot claim that it is so. In any case, I believe it is an interesting observation to make.

That is about as much as I wanted to say. There is an Arab land nobody knows about because nobody cared about them in the past. Nobody helped them, they were forgotten. They still exist, but they don't even know Arabic anymore, and they lead very poor lives. They are Arab still. Arab by lineage. My research was eye opening. I hope this article can open your eyes as well.