Six Names, Six Lives, No Justice: Iran’s Crimes Against Ahwazi Arabs Continue Unchecked
By Mayasa Albawi
October 4, 2025
At dawn on Saturday, October 4, six young Ahwazi Arab men were executed inside Al-Hawira Prison in Iran’s Khuzestan province. Their names — Ali Mojaddam, Moin Khanfari, Seyed Salem Mousavi, Mohammad Reza Moqaddam, Adnan Al-Boushouka (Ghabishawi), and Habib Dris — now join the long list of political prisoners whose lives have been cut short by a regime that wields the death penalty as a tool of fear and control.
The executions, carried out in secrecy and without due process, once again reveal how Iran’s judiciary operates outside the bounds of international law. They also underscore a deeper moral failure: the world’s persistent silence in the face of Tehran’s crimes against ethnic and political minorities. For decades, the Ahwazi Arab minority, concentrated in Iran’s oil-rich southwest, has endured systemic discrimination, economic marginalization, and cultural erasure. Despite the region’s immense contribution to the national economy, Ahwazis remain among the poorest and most politically deprived communities in the country.
The six executed men, arrested between 2018 and 2019, were accused of ties to separatist groups — a routine charge used by Iranian authorities to silence activists, journalists, and community organizers. Human rights groups report that they were detained by the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Service, subjected to torture, and coerced into making false confessions. Late Friday night, two of the men — Habib Dris and Seyed Salem Mousavi — were quietly moved from Sheiban Prison to Al-Hawira. By dawn, all six had been hanged. Iranian state media withheld their names, referring to them only as “six separatist terrorists linked to the Zionist regime.” This dehumanizing language — common in such cases — strips individuals of their identities, legitimizes violence, and conceals injustice.
Independent human rights organizations quickly identified the victims and condemned the executions as politically motivated killings. Amnesty International called the hangings a “flagrant violation of the right to life,” while Human Rights Watch described them as an “inhuman crime” reflecting Tehran’s campaign of intimidation against Ahwazi activists.
Condemnations, reports, and official statements have filled pages over the years. Yet words without action remain hollow. Without concrete measures to hold perpetrators accountable, Tehran’s campaign of repression will continue unchecked. The cycle of arrests, torture, and executions thrives in silence, emboldened by global inaction. As one Ahwazi activist in exile put it: “This was not just the execution of six men — it was the execution of hope. When the world stays silent, it tells us our lives don’t matter.” His words capture the despair that permeates Ahwazi communities within Iran and across the diaspora, as they watch their people erased from the national narrative.
These executions are not isolated events. They are part of a systematic policy of repression targeting Iran’s ethnic minorities — Arabs in the southwest, Kurds in the northwest, and Baluchis in the southeast. Through mass arrests, secret trials, and dawn hangings, the regime enforces obedience through terror. Families often learn of executions only after the fact, denied even the right to mourn publicly.
Although Iran’s constitution nominally guarantees cultural and linguistic diversity, reality tells another story. Ahwazi activists advocating for Arabic-language education or environmental justice are branded “terrorists” and “foreign agents.” The government’s narrative conflates ethnic identity with treason, ensuring that legitimate grievances are met with violence rather than dialogue.
If justice is ever to prevail, the international community must move beyond rhetoric. Human rights organizations should not only document abuses but also press for accountability mechanisms — including expanding the UN fact-finding mission on Iran and pursuing referrals to international courts. Governments must impose targeted sanctions on officials in Iran’s judiciary and security forces responsible for torture and executions. Diplomatic engagement should be contingent on measurable human rights improvements, not vague assurances. Civil society also has a crucial role to play. Activists and journalists must continue documenting abuses, amplifying Ahwazi voices, and preserving the memory of those silenced. Visibility itself is resistance against a system built on secrecy.
The stories of Ali Mojaddam, Moin Khanfari, Seyed Salem Mousavi, Mohammad Reza Moqaddam, Adnan Al-Boushouka, and Habib Dris must not fade into anonymity. Their names represent a generation of Ahwazi youth who dreamed of equality and dignity in their homeland — a dream extinguished at dawn. Each execution carried out in silence deepens the wound of injustice and exposes the moral emptiness of global inaction. Iran’s leadership bears direct responsibility for their deaths, but the world’s indifference shares the blame. Until these crimes are met with urgency and accountability, the gallows in Iran will remain busy, and justice will remain distant.
Six names. Six lives. No justice. And still — no accountability.
