Iran slams Qatar over city name

The display of the Arab name of the Iranian city of Abadan on the in-plane screens of Qatari Airways sparked wide protests and triggered incriminations of alleged historical frauds.

Iranians accused Qatar of tampering with history by discarding the Persian name of the southwestern city of Abadan and using instead the Arab one on the screen maps the carrier uses for showing passengers where they are , the Iranian news website Tabnak reported.

Abadan is located in the Khuzestan province, which has a predominantly Arab population, also called Ahwazis. The province is also called Arabistan.

The website, owned by the former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, added that this action raises questions about the intentions of Qatar, especially that this same name was used by "enemies of the Islamic republic" like Saddam Hussein and Arab-Iranian separatists.

"This is proof of Qatar's sinister intentions against the safety of Iran," added Tabnak, which is one of the most widely-read websites in Iran.

The website said the Arabs colonized Iran and stated that, contrary to Arab claims, it is the Arabs who changed names of cities in order to wipe out the Persian identity.

"Now the Iranian government and people are determined to get back their national identity and it was normal to start referring to cities with their original names."

This is proof of Qatar's sinister intentions against the safety of Iran

Tabnak website

Ahwazis refute Iran's claims

An Ahwazi rights group called the Association against Anti-Arab Discrimination in Iran said in a statement issued Saturday that the Arab name of Abadan is the historically correct one and argued that this has nothing to do with Saddam Hussein or with separatist movements.

"Qatari Airways used the correct name," said the statement of which Al Arabiya obtained a copy. "Iran's stand on this issue is an example of discrimination against non-Persians and specifically Arabs."

The statement pointed out the contradiction to which Iran has fallen prey when insisting on using the Persian Gulf on the grounds that this is its historical name then trying to tamper with history by giving Persian names to Arab cities.

Abadan, the statement added, is just one of many cities whose names have been changed in order to erase their Arab identity. Other examples include the renaming of the city of Mohammarah to Khorramshahr and Khafajiah to Susangard.

The river of Shatt al-Arab, which literally means 'coast of the Arabs,' was given the Persian name Arvand-Rud.

The association presented documents that refute the website's claims that the original names of Ahwazi cities were Persian and stated that it was Reza Shah Pahlavi who changed those names in 1935.

The association called for giving Arab cities their original names and accused the Iranian government of double standards.

"How could the Iranian government maintain names given to cities by the very regime it ousted in the 1979 Islamic Revolution?"

*(Translated from the Arabic by Sonia Farid)

How could the Iranian government maintain names given to cities by the very regime it ousted in the 1979 Islamic Revolution?

Ahwazi rights group