Water Shortage Protests Spread In Iran As Anger Boils Over

“We are thirsty,” protesters have chanted in the province of Khuzestan, as bullets and tear gas have been fired at them to disperse angry crowds in a region where temperatures approach 50 C. Calling Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a dictator, they accuse the government of Iran of creating a scarcity of water in 700 villages by diverting it for use in oil drilling and for populations in other provinces. Citizens were already suffering as the worst drought in Iran in half a century is underway.

Eighty percent of Iran’s oil fields and sixty percent of natural gas reserves are located in the region and incoming president Ebrahim Raisi will face continued protests against policies seemingly designed to force ethnic Arabs off the land. 

In an exclusive interview, Hamid Mutashar, the founder of the Ahwazi Liberal Party, proclaimed: “On July 15, the people of Ahwaz revolted due to a lack of water. The people demonstrated in Muhammarah, Ma’ashur, Busaiteen, Sweya, Umdia and Hamidiyah. In Al Zaiya, Al Salinhiday and in Ma’ashur, the people closed the main roads to the city by burning tires.” 

Since then, the protests inside Iran have become widespread, which led to the regime increasingly clamping down on them. At least eight civilian casualties have occurred. Human Rights Activists News Agency, HRANA, reported that the Intelligence Ministry arrested Iranian Azeri activist Siamak Koushi, released him after a few hours and then the Revolutionary Guard Intelligence Organization arrested him again (one of a hundred such detentions). He was also arrested last year during the war between Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The question remains, will the Al Ahwaz protests be an inspiration for the Hindus of Bangladesh and other repressed minorities inside of Iran and across the Islamic world, or will these protests share the same fate as the Green Movement?