change the demographic composition of Ahwazi Arabs from a majority to a minority (by a third) over a 10 year period. The government, instead of answering the demands of the street to stop the displacement and the plans for demographic change and giving the Arab minority their basic rights, met and continue to meet the legitimate demands and peaceful protests with excessive violence. Large numbers of people died, many were injured and many were sentenced to death after being arrested on flimsy charges during the protests for threatening national security and employing propaganda against the government. The use of violence against minorities in Iran was not only confined to political activists but includes ordinary citizens as well; young Arabs are subject to arrest just for wearing traditional clothing at Eids and festivals and security guards hit them and torture them. This occurs within a framework of political alienation and attacks on the national identity of the Arab minority in Iran. As for symbolic and verbal violence, it is present in the persistent racial discourse against the Arabs in Iran. It starts with the academic curriculum and in books and the media and even in poetry festivals which put forward hostile views and contempt for the Arabs in Iran. It is also presents in the prevailing extremist national discourse of the powerful elite in government agencies. As for other issues of violence, they are linked to the negligence of the authorities towards the health situation caused by the oil and petrol installations and the continued systematic destruction of the environment and the lack of concern given to catastrophes and widespread diseases. This occurs especially in the city of Al Ahwaz, the regional capital, which is the most polluted city in the world according to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Thousands of citizens there are admitted to hospital after rainfall as a result of breathing difficulties due to acid particles and dust in the air. The pollution of drinking water is another catastrophe facing the Ahwazis; it has become not only impossible to drink it but also impossible to use due to widespread dangerous skin diseases and chronic gastric diseases. With regard to agricultural water, last October Sherif Husni the Ahwazi representative in the Iranian parliament accused the government of practising forced displacement through plans to divert river water and change the