The Arab people of Ahwaz lived on their land for thousands of years before the military invasion of Reza Khan Pahlavi. Their contemporary political history shows that they sometimes enjoyed independent rule and at other times semi-independent rule from the empires and semi-empires that formed in our region and extended their control over the territories by military force, but left these territories to govern themselves without interfering in their internal affairs. For example, during the Safavid era, the land of Ahwaz was called Arabistan for the first time, meaning the land of the Arabs, which was part of a semi-independent confederation.
Day of Occupation and Loss of Sovereignty
In April 1925, this independent confederal sovereignty was destroyed by a military attack by Reza Khan Pahlavi on Ahwaz, occupying it and capturing Sheikh Khazal, the last ruler of Arabistan, on a day that became known as the Day of Occupation and Loss of Sovereignty.
Colonization and Identity Erasure Policy
With the occupation of Ahwaz (Arabistan) and its annexation to the newly established state (Iran), and the creation of the Iranian nation-state, accompanied by the slogan of one language, one flag, and one homeland, the process of colonization of Ahwaz (Arabistan) by the modern government began, with the goal of destroying the identity of the Arab people and changing the essence of their Arab land. Reza Pahlavi, who became king, was commissioned to be responsible for the military branch of a long-term project that began implementation at that time.
The first step taken by Reza Shah, at the suggestion of his advisors who served as a research center planning the Iranian nation-state project, had different aspects including changing the Arabic names of Ahwazi cities and villages to foreign Persian names. The name Arabistan was changed to Khuzestan, and Reza Shah chose a Persian alternative for all Arabic names.
The process of identity erasure during the Pahlavi rule and subsequently the Islamic Republic witnessed brave resistance on one hand and bloody suppression of this resistance on the other. This resistance went through ups and downs that can be summarized in three main phases:
National Awareness Formation Phase
This phase began simultaneously with the occupation of Ahwaz (Arabistan) and the start of resistance against the arrogant enemy. This phase continued until the formation of the Arabistan Liberation Front. After Reza Khan's seizure of Ahwaz (Arabistan), resistance was formed against this takeover, initiated by tribal sheikhs.
In the era before Sheikh Khazal's rule, each tribe had its role and seal. When a particular tribe gained power, it would gather other tribes under its leadership and make people submit to it by force or through forming alliances. When Sheikh Khazal managed to take power, he was able to somehow gather everyone under his rule and planted the seed of forming the Ahwazi people without planning for this in advance. This seedling began to grow rapidly because the global and regional situation was moving towards forming nation-states. Like Muhammad Ali Pasha in Egypt, Sheikh Khazal considered himself an independent ruler in major countries with the independent sovereignty of his country. After the end of Sheikh Khazal's rule and Reza Khan's seizure of Arabistan, Ahwaz, the dominance of one tribe over other tribes was no longer the main conflict, but the conflict became against a foreign power that wanted to control all local forces and bring them under a new and unprecedented system.
National Conflict Phase
During this period specifically, the type of conflict in Arabistan changed. Tribal conflicts transformed into a national conflict against a foreign colonial power, and from here, the feeling of popular solidarity arose, where the tribe and its interests were not the priority, but the priority was in confronting the foreign invasion. This phase was the phase of the birth of popular awareness among the masses of this people.
Growth and Expansion Phase
The phase of growth and expansion in acquiring national identity coincided with the emergence of nationalist movements in all Arab countries, especially in Iraq. The expansion of Arab nationalist thought in Iraq helped in planning to build an infrastructure for nationalist thought and consolidating national identity in Ahwaz.
The Arab nationalist movement and its thought, which spread in all Arab countries, especially Egypt and Iraq, and coincided with liberation movements opposing colonialism and leftist liberation movements of oppressed nations, played an important role in strengthening the struggle of the Ahwazi people. This prominent role created a qualitative leap like few others in that period, and this qualitative leap had a deep impact on theorizing the concept of the people.
Political Opening Phase
After the overthrow of the Shah and the creation of an open political space, activists and fighters of this movement established political and cultural centers and tried in this context to expand the scope of their activities to all cities and villages in Ahwaz.
The masses, especially the youth, welcomed these activities, and the movement became a wide popular movement. However, the size of the leadership was not suitable for the size of this reception and the enormity of the political work that pervaded all parts of Ahwaz at that time, and the movement's leadership was not able to transform this popular force, which was strongly moving towards political work, into organized political work.
Suppression and War Phase
The political scene in Iran on the eve of the peoples' revolution against the Pahlavi regime, especially in Ahwaz and its cities, was moving towards defining responsibilities and tasks. These responsibilities became evident after the fall of the Shah and during the early years of the new rule under the umbrella of an Islamic republic that promised political openness for all components of this geography. With the attack of the ruling regime and the suppression and extermination of the Ahwazi national movement, and due to the Iran-Iraq War, the scene and situation changed completely. National movements were suppressed in all regions, and the Islamic Republic of Iran imposed its complete control over all parts of Iran.
Reform Period and Movement Awakening
After the war ended, the Islamic Republic regime in Iran, in order to get out of acute crises, put the reform project on its agenda, and President Khatami became the standard-bearer of this transformation. The arrival of Khatami to power was considered one of the main and important points in the national movement in Ahwaz, within these apparent contradictions of the ruling body. The Ahwazi national movement was able to carry out peaceful and legal activities that were public in nature within a partisan and organizational framework, and during this time was able to train active civil capacities.
During this period (the reform period), various forces emerged that differed fundamentally in thought and method of work from the previous thought and methods of work at the level of the Ahwazi political arena. These forces framed their movement in relying on building cadres from within the arena and succeeded in that. The foundations for political and cultural work were built, which continued to this day and became one of the pillars of national activity in the Ahwazi arena that it relies on almost entirely. This movement attracted many segments of the people and created an awakening at the national level. During this era, the national movement was able, in a deliberate and gradual manner, to create for itself a leadership pyramid that leads the movement step by step forward.
Founding of Arab Struggle Movement of Ahwaz
Coinciding with these developments, a number of young people from the educated and fighting conscious class, who were active in the civil movement, formed the Arab Struggle Movement of Ahwaz on 27-11-1999. These intellectuals' goal in forming this organization was scientific, professional, and specialized political work that serves the Ahwazi cause. They were certain that the reform period was transient and could not continue, and that the Ahwazi people must face the ruling regime head-on sooner or later. For this reason, they made every effort to organize and prepare a long-term secret armed struggle. However, the secret work did not prevent the leaders of this organization from participating in the public political work at that time.
Movement Evolution and Journey
The civil and peaceful movement did not last long and was severely suppressed in 2005, as the leaders of the Arab Struggle Movement of Ahwaz had expected. After this suppression, they were forced to defend against the plans of the regime's military and security apparatus. The Struggle Movement was placed at the center of attention because of its national activities, so this organization was able to provide itself with a large popular base. As a result of these activities, many leaders of this organization were arrested and executed, forcing some of the organization's leaders to emigrate outside Ahwaz.
At the beginning of 2015, changes occurred in the Struggle Movement's policy, and the organization's slogan was changed from an armed force to a non-armed force. The weapon symbol drawn on the organization's logo was also removed and replaced with the Ahwazi Arab palm tree. This was another qualitative change in accepting the principle of the right to self-determination.
In 2019, at the New York conference, the Struggle Movement officially announced that the main goal of the Struggle Movement is the acceptance of the peoples' right to self-determination. These changes continued to this day and gave the Struggle Movement a clearer and more realistic concept of the principle of the right to self-determination.
The Struggle Movement now believes in forming a federal or confederal state that guarantees democracy and freedoms within a decentralized system in the current geography of Iran, which is the goal of the Ahwazi people currently, and at the top of these rights is their right to self-determination.
