An Ahwazi cultural festival was held in the city of Malmo –south of Sweden ,on Sunday evening of January 18th 2015.

The aim of this festival was introducing the Arab people of Ahwaz, their identity, heritage and history to the Swedish people, and the Arab community leaving in Sweden.

 

According to the organizers of the ceremony who were part of the European society for Human Development and Ahwaz Human Rights Organization, the evening included musical segments from Arabic Ahwazi heritage, performed by the Ahwazi singer "Saied Abbas" along with a photo gallery and Ahwazi national food and clothing exhibition and a short theatrical piece from Ahwazi folklore.

Hillevi Larsson from the Swedish ruling social democratic party and other representatives of Swedish political parties and civil society along with cultural associations of the Arab community attended this festival.

The ceremony was inaugurated by a recorded piece from Mahdi Saky's band "kama kan" (as it was) of traditional Arabic songs from Ahwaz and winner of several awards .

"Saeed Abbas " who came from the Netherlands revived the ceremony ,by a wonderful musical concert and performed the most beautiful national and traditional songs accompanied by Ahwazi folklore dance ,where the attendees joined together to perform traditional "chobi" dance.

A short documentary about the history of cinema in Ahwaz directed by Ahwazi director and producer "Mahdi Turfi" ,winner of the Abu Dhabi short movie award and other awards in Iranian festivals was played during the evening .

A theatrical sketch about engagement tradition of Ahwazi Arab people was performed by a spontaneous initiative from Ahwazi activists under the supervision of Syrian director Mr."Mos'ab Albashawat ".

The festival began with the speech of the president of the European Society for Human Development ,in which Ms."Kudra Alhir" welcomed the audience and overviewed the social life of Ahwazi Arabs and talked about the goals of establishing such cultural festivals and the activities of European Society for Human Development .

Later Mr."Saleh Hamid" member of Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO) discussed the role of the organization in reporting the suffering of Ahwazi Arab people to the international community and stressed the need for intercultural dialogue among people in the fight against violence and extremism .

After the performance of "Saied Abbas" ,"Jaber Ahmad" an Ahwazi researcher and the chief of center for Ahwazi studies delivered a short speech about the history of Ahwazi people and stated:"The ancient Ahwaz was the cradle of Elamite civilization ,and Arab inhabited this region in B.C, and after Islam it became a part of Islamic Empires ,and in different periods it was an independent entity, as in the era of "Musha'shayin" and "Bani Ka'ab" reign".

He added: "Ahwaz ,also known as Arabistan(i.e the land of the Arabs) was not under the control of any foreign forces, but later as a land and as a nation it became under the rule of Qajar dynasty in Iran ,under the "Erzurum" agreement of 1847 between the Safavid and the Ottomans, however it remained autonomous and the rule of the central state was just symbolic and this situation continued until 1925".

And in the poetry section of the festival ,the Ahwazi poet "Awatef Alasadi" (Oum Sana'a) recited the poem "Metel Awal"(Like old times) from the great Ahwazi poet "Ibrahim Dirawi".

The ceremony ended by performing "Chobi" dance, and serving of traditional Ahwazi food (rice and okra) and other delights and appetizers along with famous Arabic coffee.

 

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