First of all, Iran’s impoverished province of Khuzestan needs to have a development program in accordance with its geographical, cultural and social potentials. In Khuzestan, the government should think about the education and the development of its people which it has forgoten after the end of the Iran-Iraq war.
The pains and disadvantages of Khuzestan are many and innumerable. Crying and showing only ‘sympathy’ with this injured province body is useless. If the problem of Khuzestan was to be solved with the government’s fake budget, industries, agriculture, industry, etc., promises, it would have become heaven by now, but this did not happen.
Khuzestan has been one of the firsts in many industries and resources in the country, but these firsts did not cause all-round growth and excellence in the province. Because along with material development, the human, social and cultural dimensions have always been ignored. And the people of this province are one of the most isolated and deprived in the country, just because of being an Arab Sunni minority.
And now, if the intention to carry out reforms and real growth and development is considered, it is very difficult to do so because many resources such as water, environment, soil, etc. have been destroyed and in many cases have reached a critical and irreversible level.
Today, the situation of education, even at its basic levels, is not in a good condition in many parts of the province. Over the years, some of the misconceptions of the people of this land have not been corrected and the positive cases have not been strengthened by the government. The spirit of development of its people is not supported and instead it has been weakened by the government, and an industry such as oil has only led to their deprivation because all its benefits are stolen by the government.
In the years after the war, because of the regime’s wrong policies, the favorable social aspect of Khuzestan, which indicated brotherhood, friendliness, kindness, and self-sacrifice, has changed and moved towards divergence. Many investors outside the province are reluctant to invest in the province’s economy. Many natives of the province have either migrated or are migrating, and in this migration, not only the issue of dust and water are the reasons, but it should be said that cultural repression and poverty in many areas of the social life in this province are the cause and motivation of these migrations.
Comparing the indicators of development in the province with other provinces of the country, it becomes clear that the province is lagging in many ways, and compensating for this backwardness requires planning, effort, and leaving matters in the hands of skilled people, which the government is not interested.
With political games and phony support, the government is trying to cure the pains of this province, without any success. Only attracting budget and credit will not work for the government, because at the same time, many of its officials and brokers are looting this province and thinking of gaining more benefits and enhancing their power from these credits.
And, as in previous years, they will hurt the province with their various lootings and benefiting, taking the money and capital of this province with themselves to the capital, and just paying attention to their own welfare and livelihood, and deriding the people of this province and taking only political and social gestures that they are caring about the interests of these poor and weak people.
If the government of Iran would just care about the development of Khuzestan’s people, this province would see progress, otherwise, as in previous years, the people are forced to leave this province. And now this is not happening and most of its people are vagrant, around the metropoles of the country.
Khuzestan today has problems even in small and primitive matters such as waste collection even in its good neighborhoods of the city. It has problems in matters such as maintaining public transportation such as buses and its stations, and you rarely see well working stations in the provincial capital which is Ahvaz. And the final comment is that this province is still at the start of its development after 40 years of clerical rule.
