The Arab lineage in Iran appears to date back to the Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries that brought Islam to the country.[1][2]  Iranian Arabs differ from the country’s ethnic Persian majority along linguistic lines.  The group speaks Arabic, while Iranian Persians speak Farsi. 

Most Arabs live in the southern regions of Iran, with the majority living in Khuzestan Province.  Other, smaller populations live along the coastal plains of the Persian Gulf.  Most of the Arabs living in Khuzestan are Shia Muslims, while those living along the Persian Gulf are largely Sunni Muslims. 

Most Iranian Arabs residing in Khuzestan are bilingual, speaking Arabic as a first language and Farsi as a second.  The version of Arabic spoken in the province is known as Khuzestani Arabic, which is a Farsi-influenced Mesopotamian dialect shared by Arabs across the border in Iraq.  As such, it is said to be non-intelligible by most other Arabic-speakers.[3][4][5]  In Hormozgan Province, however, the Iranian Arab population speaks various local dialects of Gulf Arabic that, like the Mesopotamian dialects, have a significant Farsi influence.  The Arab women of the province wear a distinct type of facial covering that is not religious in character, but is said to have been adopted during the period of Portuguese administration of Hormozgan, when the women desired to walk about without revealing their faces – or were perhaps concerned about protecting themselves from the intense heat of the sun.  The coverings are said to be reflective of the facial armor worn by ancient Greek soldiers. [6]

Demography

Although there are no exact figures on the Iranian Arab population due to a lack of ethnic categories within the Iranian census, various reports have offered an estimate of the group’s demography.  The CIA World Factbook estimates that approximately 3 percent of Iran’s nearly 65,400,000 citizens are Arabic-speakers, the majority of whom live in Khuzestan, with 1 percent speaking Arabic as their native or primary language.[7]  In the  2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Iran, the U.S. State Department acknowledged that the number of Khuzestani Arabs “could range from two to four million or higher.”[8]  The Historical Dictionary of Iran, for its part, puts the number of Iranian Arabs at 1 million.[9]    

It is of note that Human Rights Watch has stated that, “precise figures on the ethnic composition of Iran's population are impossible to obtain.  The last census in which such data was compiled was carried out in 1956.”

According to the Minorities at Risk Project, around 40 percent of Arabs live in urban areas, and most of these residents are unskilled workers.  Rural Arabs are primarily farmers and fishermen, while Arabs living along the Persian Gulf are mostly pastoral nomads.

Tribal loyalties are strong among rural Arabs, but also have an influence in urban areas.[10]

Geographic Distribution

Iranian Arabs are evenly split between urban and rural dwellers, with most communities concentrated in five primary locations:  Kuwait, Iraq (primarily Basra) and the provinces of Khuzestan, Bushehr and Hormozgan.  Pockets of Iranian Arab populations are also found in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.  Between 1.5 and 2 million Arabs live in the Gulf provinces of Iran and close to 500,000 reside in Iraq and Kuwait.[11] 

Historic Hardship

While Sunnis are accorded “full respect” in the Iranian constitution, Iranian Sunnis suffer discrimination socially.  In the past, the Iranian government barred the construction of a Sunni mosque in Tehran; it has also substantially restricted public displays of Sunni religion and culture.  Along with these exclusionary practices, there is also evidence of the use of torture and executions to intimidate Arabs. 

In 1979, the Arab Political Cultural Organization (APCO) was formed and in April of that year it requested some concessions.  The group was subsequently given approval to form a provincial council with limited autonomy.  Unrest occurred afterwards due to the presence of Revolutionary Guards, especially in Khorramshahr (Khuzestan Province).  The instability continued and then peaked when the Arabs began bombing oil refineries and pipelines on “Black Wednesday” (June 14, 1979).  On April 30, 1980, they seized the Iranian embassy in London as a strategy to have 91 Arabs imprisoned in Iran freed.

Both the urban and rural Arabs of Khuzestan are intermingled with Persians and make up 70 percent of the 3 million inhabitants of the province.[12]  Iranian Arabs are regarded by themselves and by Iran's other ethnic groups as separate and distinct from non-Arabs.  The government of Iraq, both before and after Iran’s 1979 revolution, has accused Iran of discrimination against Arabs.  Despite this, Arabs were split on which country they supported during the Iran-Iraq war.  The Arab population of Khuzestan, for its part, sided with Iran during the 1980s. 

Outside of Khuzestan, there is reportedly little ethnic solidarity among Iran’s Arabs, which adds to the division between Shia and Sunni Muslims. [13]

Ongoing Hardship                                                                                                  

Despite its vast natural resources, Khuzestan currently ranks among Iran’s poorest and least developed provinces.  John Bradley has documented the frustration of some Iranian Arabs with the trend of impoverished Arab villages close to the oil pipelines that run from the nearby drilling rigs to refineries near the Persian Gulf.  Arab-majority Khuzestan, with its rich crude oil (80 percent of total revenue), gas and water reserves, is known as the ‘nerve’ of the Iranian economy.[14]  Various attempts have been made to relocate Arabs from the oil-rich provinces as a way of hoarding the monetary benefits of such resources while combating the threat of retaliatory strikes against the country’s pipelines. 

In 2006, two ethnic Arabs were publicly hanged from a crane after being found guilty of a bank bombing that killed six people.  Previous accounts detail the execution of three Iranian Arabs, as well as daily harassment against the group.  The Iranian government blames exiled separatists operating from Iraq for the violence in Khuzestan.[15] 

The United States has condemned violations of human rights in Iran, particularly with respect to the treatment of religious minorities.  Since 1999, the U.S. has designated Iran as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act for “its particularly egregious violations of religious freedom.”  Instances of denied freedoms and ethnic killings are frequent as Tehran restricts minority rights and cultural and religious practices.