A People Without Borders, Iranian Arabs: MEMO In Conversation with Shaherzad Ahmadi

Middle East Monitor Conversations

The Arabs of Khuzestan and the Iranians of Iraq were at the forefront of suspicion, anxiety and whose loyalty was questioned by the national building projects in Iran and Iraq in the 20th century.

People who inhabit the border regions of any country often find themselves being treated with a mixture of suspicion and opportunity by the metropoles of these countries. Khuzestan, Iran’s border province with Iraq, is no different. Famed for its Arab population, the Arabs of Khuzestan have been at the centre of 20th century modernising projects, tensions between neighbours and the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. But one does not need to live in close proximity to a physical border to be seen as a border person within the modern nation state project, running parallel to the Arabs of Iran are the Iranians of Iraq, who were a cause of anxiety for nationalist regimes in Baghdad. What can we learn about history and politics through the prism of people who inhabit the boundaries of the Middle East’s nation state project? Joining us to help answer this question is Shaherzad Ahmadi.
Bio: Shaherzad Ahmadi earned her BA from UC Davis in History. After graduation, she studied Persian and Arabic in Tehran before moving to Austin, Texas for her PhD at UT Austin's Department of History. Her research, on Arab Iranians in the Iran-Iraq borderland, animates both her scholarly articles, in top journals of her field, as well as her book, published by UT Austin Press, Bordering on War. Book review can be found here https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250213-bordering-on-war-a-social-and-political-history-of-khuzestan/