What’s in a Name?
‘Eighty years ago, this area was called “Balochistan.” Later it became “Balochistan and Sistan” and today it’s “Sistan and Balochistan”…we all think that before too long it will just be called “Sistan,”’ remarks a taxi driver as he steers his way along the grid-like streets of Zahedan.
Once known as ‘Duzzap’, the provincial capital of Zahedan was renamed by the Pahlavi rulers. The demographic balance in this south-eastern city has tilted in favour of the newcomers and local Baloch complain that they’ve now been excluded from the economic, political, administrative, military and cultural affairs in their homeland.
The most distinctive physical features of the city are the two slender golden minarets of the Jamia mosque, the city’s most prominent Shiite shrine. But in July 2010, the mosque suffered a twin suicide bomb attack that claimed the lives of at least 27 people, and injured hundreds more.
Not far away here, Rasool has been running a photo studio for almost 30 years. Many Persians like Rasool moved here in the hope of finding work. But now in his 60s, Rasool grumbles about the deterioration of the security situation over the past five years.
‘There’s just such uncertainty here,’ complains Rasool, who says he doesn’t know whether he will retire in Zahedan or eventually move back to his hometown of Shiraz.
About 1,500 kilometres south-east of Tehran, the wind whistles noisily through the dried palm trees of the city of Iranshahr, which sits in one of the hottest parts of the country.
‘There’s no cinema and no theatre here. Tehran spends billions funding Hizbollah in Lebanon, the Syrians, the Shiites in Iraq, the Taliban,’ says Rahim, a young looking man standing across from a billboard bearing the face of Ayatollah Khomeini. ‘But nothing ever arrives here.’
Like most Baloch here, Rahim wears traditional Baloch clothes consistingof a shalwar kameez—the baggy shirt and trousers worn frequently in Afghanistan and on the Indian subcontinent, but which only the Baloch wear in Iran. Indeed, this local style of clothing is the only visible indicator of Baloch identity that is allowed here—other symbols are expressly forbidden, while writing exclusively in the Baloch language is regarded as a criminal offence. Only the bravest Baloch in the area will boast a picture on their cell phones of Baloch leaders from across the border, such as the late Balaach Marri, or local notables such as Abdul-Malik Rigi, Jundallah’s former ringleader.
Rigi, believed to have been in his late 20s, was executed last June after being held in Iran. He was either captured in Kandahar before being handed over by Pakistani authorities, or detained in Persian Gulf waters when travelling on a plane via Dubai, depending on the news source you believe.
Travelling from Iranshahr to the deepwater port city of Chabahar by bus takes about five hours. The monotony of the journey is briefly interrupted by a mandatory stop to pray. The prayer posts are purpose-built, rudimentary mosques in the middle of the desert. A suicide attack in the city by Jundallah in December was yet another reminder of the tensions that periodically rip violently through the region. About 40 Shiite worshippers were killed as they were celebrating the Ashura, one of Shia Islam’s main religious events.
‘Our problems aren’t only due to the fact that we are neither Persian nor Shia,’ says Abdul-Sattar, who like most people here, is Sunni. The 50 year-old says he survives on the goods (mainly Chinese and Indian) he transports with his truck up to the Afghan border, almost 1,000 kilometres away. ‘Perhaps we were just born in the wrong place and the wrong time.’
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syed inayatullah shah baloch
I like that black water i join black water work in balochistan.
reza vashahi
Great article. I like to see more articles like this. Very a curate. I did not see any good articles like that about Baluch in Iran for long time. I do not know why other journalist are silent about minorities in Iran? Thank you
RUZHN
Thanx for writing about Occupied Balochistan. we Baloch hope in future also you will help us to bring the worlds attention towards Occupied Balochistan’s Issue.
thanks once again.
Gazzin
thanks Mr Karlos Zurutuza that u have high lighted Balochistan and Baloch problems to entire world.