The British Ahwazi Friendship Society is called on UNICEF to intervene to stop the continued kidnapping and detention of young Ahwazi children and their mothers.
Last week, the wife and two young children of Ahwazi Arab opposition activist Habib Faraj-allah were kidnapped and taken into custody by the Iranian regime.
Hoda Hawashem (24) (pictured left), four year old Ahmed (centre) and two year old Osameh (right) are now in custody, along with other Ahwazi women and children.
Sakina Naisi, a 40 year old woman taken into custody in February when she was three months pregnant, has reportedly had to have an abortion after suffering physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her torturers. Sakina is the wife of Ahmad Naisi, a prominent political activist wanted by the authorities. Following her arrest, the authorities destroyed her husband's family home in the Sho'aybiyeh district of Ahwaz with bulldozers.
Sakina was among five people, including three women and two children, mentioned in a recent Amnesty International urgent action appeal, which called for their immediate release. Soghra Khudayrawi and her four year old son Zeidan and Masoumeh Kaabi and her four year old son Aimad have been in custody since February to punish their husbands for engaging in political activism (click here for further details).
Nasser Bani-Assad, spokesman for the British Ahwazi Friendship Society, said: "The detention of Ahwazi women and children amounts to kidnapping. None of them have committed any crime. It is a way of punishing political opposition to the Iranian regime. The Iranian regime is one of the most cruellest governments on earth, but the European Commission has failed to address these grotesque human rights abuses.
"The detention of children is in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is legally binding on Iran. President Ahmadinejad is breaking all the rules and must be brought to account by the international community for crimes committed by his government."
Leaflet: Release Ahwazi Children and Women
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keywords: ahvaz ahwaz ahwazi arabistan khuzestan khuzistan khuzestani arab arabistan iran iranian human rights security oil news ahmadinejad ethnic cleansing
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