<div dir="ltr">
<h1>ANALYSIS: Iranian regime’s policy of dumbing down the population </h1>
<div class="gmail-article-default-image">
<img src="https://vid.alarabiya.net/images/2018/02/14/afa52b1b-3f95-4ec9-a14c-73b1026d4201/afa52b1b-3f95-4ec9-a14c-73b1026d4201_16x9_788x442.jpg" alt="">
<div class="gmail-article-image-info">
<div class="gmail-inner">
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks to ethnic Arabs during a visit to
Dehlavieh in the province of Khuzestan, on 25 March 2006. (AFP)
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-article-info2">
<div class="gmail-left">
<div class="gmail-article-info">
<a class="gmail-user-head-blog" title="Tony Duheaume" href="http://english.alarabiya.net/authors/Tony-Duheaume.html">
<img src="https://vid.alarabiya.net/images/2016/11/23/6ec88880-cac0-4b21-9969-a8f96ffc9c51/6ec88880-cac0-4b21-9969-a8f96ffc9c51_3x4_170x227.JPG" alt="">
</a>
<a class="gmail-author-name" title="Tony Duheaume" href="http://english.alarabiya.net/authors/Tony-Duheaume.html">
By Tony Duheaume
</a>
<span class="gmail-source">Special to Al Arabiya English</span>
<span class="gmail-caption">Wednesday, 14 February 2018</span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-right gmail-font-size-buttons">
Text size
<a class="gmail-btn gmail-small">A</a>
<a class="gmail-btn gmail-active gmail-medium">A</a>
<a class="gmail-btn gmail-large">A</a>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-clearfix">
<div class="gmail-article-content gmail-article-text-content">
<div class="gmail-box gmail-ad-box">
<div class="gmail-head"></div>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-arena">
<div id="gmail-adSlot-inPage-300x250-right"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/7229/alarabiya.net/English/Perspective/Features/Articles_2__container__" style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:0pt"></div></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-foot"></div>
</div>
<p>The Iranian regime’s ban on the teaching of English in its schools
is just an extension of its attempt at dumbing down the population in
order to force feed them the ideology of Ruhollah Khomeini.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">It
is a method which it has aggressively employed against ethnic groups
such as the Ahwazi Arabs in Khuzestan since the 1979 revolution.</p> <h2>Persianization of an Arab province</h2> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">The
oil-rich province of Khuzestan, which was originally known for its Arab
culture and demography and was even called Arabistan (Al-Ahwaz), is
situated in southwest Iran. Reza Shah Pahlavi’s troops invaded this Arab
territory in 1925 and after annexing it renamed the province as
Khuzestan.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">Even after the overthrow of the
Pahlavi dynasty, Khomeini continued the oppression of Al-Ahwaz by
installing the dictatorship of Shiite clerics. Applying his own
interpretation of Shia theology, Khomeini imposed it on Iranian society
through compulsory Persian education and a government-controlled media
which led to the dumbing down of the province’s society.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">ALSO READ: <a href="http://ara.tv/85z4y">Iranian official: Tehran has ballistic missiles to target navigation </a></p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">With
only the Farsi language allowed and a singularly Persian cultural
identity being imposed on all, the new regime incited a jingoistic
fervour in order to revive Persian control over most of the Middle East.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">As
far as Iran’s Persian identity is concerned, leaders of the Iranian
regime have given it a racist tinge. They fear an uprising in oil-rich
Khuzestan, an area which is critical to the country’s financial survival
and so they have begun to drastically dumb down its population through
poor education and a heavily controlled media.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile"></p>
<div class="gmail-media_box gmail-full gmail-withoutText">
<div class="gmail-media">
<img class="gmail-img-responsive" src="https://vid.alarabiya.net/images/2018/02/14/bcf1a379-5852-4387-b3b4-599445c1bef5/bcf1a379-5852-4387-b3b4-599445c1bef5.JPG" alt="">
<p>Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gestures as members of Iranian
armed forces take part in a rally in Tehran, on February 11, 2018.
(Reuters)</p>
</div>
</div>
<h2>The threat from education</h2> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">Majority
of those living in this annexed Iranian province are of Arab descent,
but they have been stripped of their cultural identity and language.
They have also been driven out of their lands, or have been forced to
embrace a highly Persianized identity and way of life. It is a
heavily-policed province where a call for change could put one behind
bars or be executed.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">With the Iranian
government having virtually blocked education to non-Persians in ethnic
minority areas such as Ahwaz, with hardly any schools left in their
villages, the children of the poor have to travel to the city for
education on a daily basis, which is close to impossible for many, due
to the cost or lack of transport.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">Even
though there is high level of illiteracy in the Ahwazi community, with
no government plans to invest in local education, the regime unveils
plans to build 3,000 schools in neighbouring Iraq. In Khuzestan, the
lack of education keeps people from having the ability to speak out for
themselves in the realm of politics.</p> <h2>Proscribing languages</h2> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">Limiting
education has always been the regime’s way of dumbing down the Ahwazis
and all other minority ethnic groups, as without proper education, they
will not get far academically, and will be in no position to change the
province’s future or effectively voice their grievances to the
government.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">Any other language except for
Farsi is forbidden in public places. This prohibition covers schools
and denies children of ethnic minorities the right to education in their
mother tongue and drastically undermines their cultural identity.
According to many reports, the Ahwazi Arabs have the highest proportion
of illiteracy in Iran.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">Right across Iran,
all non-Persian languages are proscribed from all forms of printed
material, such as newspapers and magazines. Journalists who dare flaunt
this rule are harassed by the secret services, and in most cases jailed
or executed. There are just a few Arab language programs being broadcast
on state radio, but not a single TV channel broadcasts any programs in
the Arabic language.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile"></p>
<div class="gmail-media_box gmail-full gmail-withoutText">
<div class="gmail-media">
<img class="gmail-img-responsive" src="https://vid.alarabiya.net/images/2013/05/02/3e1b506e-b584-4151-8e5b-cf68a5fe6a8b/3e1b506e-b584-4151-8e5b-cf68a5fe6a8b.jpg" alt="">
<p>The government of Iran directly controls all television and radio
broadcasting. The authorities frequently issue ad hoc orders banning
media coverage of specific topics and events. (AFP)</p>
</div>
</div>
<h2>Ban on satellite dishes</h2> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">To ensure
Ahwazis have no political representation within the administration in
Khuzestan, even educated Arabs are prohibited from forming political
organisations. After the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in
2005, many were thrown out of public jobs.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">But
there are times when censorship verges on the ridiculous. For instance
in July 2012, security forces entered the village of Sariya in Khafajiya
and removed satellite dishes from residential buildings to stop the
locals from receiving broadcasts from foreign Arabic channels.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">ALSO READ: <a href="http://ara.tv/8h8gq">Why is Iran persecuting followers of the Gonabadi Sufi order? </a></p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">With
the regime so obsessed with security, it is believed that the raid was
carried out in response to a Dubai television show on Caliph Omar (May
Allah be pleased with him), which showed how the Caliph’s military
forces mounted a brilliant military campaign against the Persians. When
the fighting was over, King of the Persian Empire of Iran Yazdegerd III
was heavily defeated and this brought an end to the Persian Empire.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">The
mullah leadership felt that the TV show could incite rebellion in the
minds of local Ahwazis, who have been living under extreme oppression,
and were already restive by various government projects which were
ranged against them.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">For quite some time,
the number of Shias converting to the Sunni faith is on the rise. With
the series on Caliph Omar (May Allah be pleased with him) being
broadcast during the holy month of Ramadan, the administration might
have felt that the show has led to more conversions, which fuelled
paranoia against the oppressive regime.</p> <h2>Cultural isolation</h2> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">Defending
their latest ban on the English language, a senior education official
said the decision was in response to a warning from Islamic leaders, on
how the learning of the English language would open the door to Western
“cultural invasion”.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">In 2016, Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voiced his outrage over the “teaching of
the English language spreading to nursery schools”, as according to him
“Western thinkers have time and again said that instead of colonial
expansion… the best and the least costly way would have been the
inculcation of thought and culture to the younger generation of
countries”.</p> <p class="gmail-hide-in-mobile">But by dumbing down the
population in the way it has, with its oppressive arm crushing all forms
of freedom in Iran, the regime is presently under attack from within.
If the recent street demonstrations increase, the regime could be
experiencing a counter revolution by the people on the 40th anniversary
of its own revolution.</p></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
</div>