Ahwazi Arabs

Ahwazi Arabs are an Arab community in Iran which resides mostly in the resource rich Khuzestan Province in southern Iran, bordering Iraq. This area is known as Ahwaz by the Arab community, and the capital of Khuzestan is Ahvaz. Ahwazi Arabs are the largest Arab community residing in Iran.

According to Library of Congress, Iranian Arabs constitute 2% of Iranian population. According to James Minahan, in 2002, the Ahwazi Arab population of Khuzestan Province was estimated at 3,460,000 (74% of the province's population). The majority are Shia, while a minority, concentrated in the coastal areas, are Sunni Muslims.

According to Amnesty International, the Ahwazi Arabs are facing discrimination by authorities concerning politics, employment and cultural rights. There has also been many arrests of Ahwazi Arabs who have converted to Sunni Islam, which is considered a crime in Iran according to the British daily newspaper The Guardian. The rise in conversion to Sunni Islam is partly a result of anti-Arab racism, the perceived crackdown on the Arab identity of the region and the view that Sunni Islam is closer to the Arab roots of the Ahwazi Arabs. According to the International Campaign for Sunni Prisoners in Iran (ICSPI), the crackdown is due to the Iranian government's alarm at "the rise of Sunni Islam among the Ahwazi Arabs in the traditionally Shia-majority Khuzestan province." As a result of these conversions, Sunni Arabs across the Middle East have increasingly shown support for the Ahwazi cause.

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