#Ahwazna – Deprived rights and stolen future of Hamidieh people in Al-Ahwaz
"Ahwazna"
Two years passed since Hamidieh that is used to classify as a densely populated district, subordinated to Ahwaz city, has officially been recognized as an urban area. However, except being declared as a city major issues including substantial provisions and municipal facilities have not so far been allocated to the city.
The Hamidieh city that lies 25Km away from Ahwaz capital still lacks civil developments, an adequate standard of the living, and urban services.
Although promises given by authorities, for improving the urban status of the city, merely appeared lip services, no commitment has been put into action.
It was expected that after entitled to city, people of Hamidieh would administratively become independent from Ahwaz capital. However, its Arab residents still have to go to Ahwaz city to do their daily needs including shopping, hospital, bank and other administrative tasks.
The local people say that they are bound to go to Ahwaz for their daily needs so they must commute between Ahwaz and Hamidieh every day.
Long time has been gone, but no tangible signals or constructive outcomes have occurred from the slogans of the authorities for establishing organizations, agencies, medical centers, schooling and education and other issues that are vital to the city.
Hamidieh has a short distance with Ahwaz, and for decades its Arab people have been subjected to systematic violations of human rights. The maximum possible degree of deprivation inflicted on these people is visible in everywhere.
Scarcity of job opportunities and economic pressures have caused the majority of the population to live in extreme poverty as there is around 1000 children from poor families who are undernourished and are suffering from pallor and weariness because of severe anemia.
The high rate of unemployment has forced many of young people of the city to immigrate to other places seeking for a job just to fulfill their basic needs.
The unemployment comes while the area has numerous oil and gas companies, but the local Arab people have been denied of getting jobs. Instead, the entire employment opportunities are granted to Persian people who came to the region by the occupying central government. Destitution and impoverishment have led to a massive exodus of the people particularly young generation of the Hamidieh city to other cities.
Mohammad Taghi Zadeh, Ahwaz’s Director General of Education in an interview with Hamshahri newspaper stated “Ahwazi regions have almost 650 thousand illiterates of which 200 thousand of these uneducated are parents of students. In addition, the figures illustrate Hamidieh has the highest number of illiterate people in compared to other areas”.
He added that the parents should go to “Literacy Plan” that is conducted by education’s ministry. Taghi Zadeh did not mention that how it would be possible for the students’ parents to go for education where unemployment is rampant all over Al-Ahwaz. As a result, parents have to think about job and life’s necessities in the first step rather than studying!!
Currently among the students of illiterate parents, Hamidieh city with 4 thousand and 841 has been ranked of having the highest illiteracy level. Showour city with 4 thousand and 291 illiterates and Falahiyeh city with 2 thousand and 362 illiterates respectively have the second and third of high illiteracy level in Al-Ahwaz.
In fact, education sector in Ahwaz is deliberately neglected by the Iranian occupiers and the illiteracy figures as mentioned above apparently show that the education is not received any investment. As a consequence, it imposed adverse impacts upon Ahwazi people’s future.
Most of the Ahwazi Arab children in disadvantaged areas are failing to gain the primary education because of lack of schooling, educational facilities, overcrowding of classes and lack of educational space, difficulty in understanding Persian language, and untrained teachers.
