Ahwazi: Activist Photographer Hakim Marwani Abducted
Photo courtesy of Ahwaz Human Rights.
On 19 November 2016, Ahwazi Arab student Hakim Marwani was abducted from his home, and most likely illegally detained by the intelligence service of the Iranian regime. Marwani achieved recognition for his photographs documenting the harsh living conditions in the Ahwaz region. Iran routinely violates the most basic human rights of Iran’s Ahwazi population, inter alia, by systematically using enforced disappearances, torture, and secret executions to terrorize local communities.
The following article was published by Ahwaz Human Rights:
Iranian intelligence arrested the 22 year-old Hakim Marwani ,a photographer and cultural activist on social media .His photos and videos portrayed a range of subjects such as the poverty and deprivation of indigenous population and social and cultural aspects of Ahwazi Arab lives in Arabistan. According to eyewitnesses, Iranian intelligence in civilian clothing broke into his house in “Mallashieh” west of Ahwaz and confiscated his computer and phone and transferred him to an undisclosed location.
According to Ahwazi activists ,Hakim Marwani who has won first place in “Reyhana festival for young photographers “ studies in Ahwaz tech university and is considered one of Arab cultural and environmental activists where subjects of his photography is environmental pollution ,drought of Karoon river, social ,cultural and traditional landscape of Arabistan region.
Recently the Iranian authorities have started a massive campaign of arrests ,targeting these youth who only through peaceful and lawful ways have shown their dissatisfaction with Tehran’s policies. This November “Hussein Bagherzadeh”, the head of intelligence in Al-Ahwaz region has announced the launching of “security and intelligence academy “ in Ahwaz for managing their “soft intelligence war” to combat the rising dissatisfaction of people by the policies being carried out by the central government .
