On Mother Language Day, Al-Kaabi Calls on UNESCO to Protect the Arabic Language and Identity in Al-Ahwaz
The executive of the Al-Ahwaz state emphasized the importance of the International Mother Language Day, which was declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on February 21st of each year, requesting the international organization to support the Arab people of Al-Ahwaz in exercising their right to learn in Arabic, their mother tongue. This right is recognized by international laws, conventions, and human rights but is denied by the Iranian occupation.
Dr. Aref Al-Kaabi, the head of the executive of the Arab state of Al-Ahwaz, stressed that UNESCO should support the Arab culture and identity in Al-Ahwaz, which are subjected to racial discrimination by the Persian occupation, in accordance with the international laws and conventions recognizing Arabic as the mother tongue of the Ahwazi Arab people. Al-Kaabi highlighted that the Iranian occupation continues its efforts to erase the Arabic language and obliterate it in the occupied Arab state of Al-Ahwaz through a series of discriminatory and repressive measures, imposing the Persian language and banning the teaching of Arabic in schools, restricting the presence of governmental and non-governmental entities that speak Arabic, and prohibiting its use in schools, universities, and through the media, among other policies pursued by the Iranian occupation against the mother language in Al-Ahwaz.
Al-Kaabi explained that the policies of the Iranian occupation towards the Arabic language reflect the continued efforts to marginalize Arab culture and replace it with Persian culture, representing a blatant violation of human rights and the international conventions and laws recognized by the United Nations. Al-Kaabi called on UNESCO to celebrate and pay attention to the Arabic language and identity in the occupied Arab state of Al-Ahwaz, considering it the mother tongue of the Ahwazi Arab people and also one of the six languages used by the United Nations alongside English, French, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish.
