Analysis
In recent years, the publication and dissemination of humiliating programs against non-Persian nations and ethnic minorities in Iranian state media have often come to the foreground and occasionally causes massive incidents. Recently, the racism issue has come to the front and revealed how much racism is rooted in Iranian state and Persian society. A children program broadcasted during Nevruz holiday represented regions and ethnicities living in Iran, however they intentionally ignored Arabs who live in Ahwaz region. It has even been shown that the regions inhabited by the Arabs belong to another ethnicity. This program has caused serious tension among the Arabs of Ahvaz living in the south of Iran. In the past few days it culminated large protests in Arab cities like Ahvaz, Ibadan, Masjid, Kut Abdullah and Hamidiye. The Iranian authorities were content with a simple apology, and security forces, as usual, resorted to violence. It has been reported that many of protesters were arrested and they location is unknown. There are two points of these events, which frequently occur in Iran; First, such humiliating racist programs are often seen in children’s programs, comedy shows and sports publications. Repeating the same thing over and over again Iran is aiming at the lowest level of society, trying to place the Persian Racism in peoples sub-consciousness. Second point is that; these kinds of publications usually appear in state broadcasters. But neither the state nor the Persian community and its intellectuals react to it. The Persian state, intellectuals and society in general are trying to cover up these events and try to boycott their news, or to put it in the shadows showing no importance to this humiliations. The best example of this is the Persian services of the BBC and VOA. Since the employees of these service are predominantly Persians, they don’t see such racist propaganda as a problem. This issue shows how deep racism is rooted in Persian society. In recent years, the Turks, the Arabs, the Kurds, the Lorals, and Beluches have repeatedly come out to protest the racial and ethnic discrimination in the country. South Azerbaijani Turks and Ahvaz Arabs are the main targets of this grave policy. Racism has become a serious social problem of Iran, which points to uncertain future.