Khuzestan province

Khuzestan province (also spelled Xuzestan; Persian: استان خوزستان Ostān-e Xuzestān) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Located in the southwest of the country, the province borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers an area of 63,238 square kilometres (24,416 sq mi). Since 2014, it has been part of Iran's Region 4.

As of the 2016 census, the province had a population of 4,710,509 in 1,280,645 households. This had risen from 4,531,720 people in 1,112,664 households recorded in the 2011 census.

One of the most important regions of the Ancient Near East, Khuzestan comprises much of what historians refer to as ancient Elam, whose capital was in Susa. The Achaemenid Old Persian term for Elam was Hujiyā when they conquered it from the Elamites, which is present in the modern name. Khuzestan, meaning "the Land of the Khuz", refers to the original inhabitants of this province, the "Susian" people (Old Persian "Huza" or Huja, as in the inscription on the tomb of Darius the Great at Naqsh-e Rostam). They are the Shushan of the Hebrew sources where they are recorded as "Hauja" or "Huja". In Middle Persian, the term evolves into "Khuz" and "Kuzi". The pre-Islamic Partho-Sasanian inscriptions gives the name of the province as Khwuzestan.

The seat of the province has for most of its history been in the northern reaches of the land, first at Susa (Shush) and then at Shushtar. During a short spell in the Sasanian era, the capital of the province was moved to its geographical center, where the river town of Hormuz-Ardasher, founded over the foundation of the ancient Hoorpahir by Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian Dynasty in the 3rd century CE. This town is now known as Ahvaz. However, later in the Sasanian time and throughout the Islamic era, the provincial seat returned and stayed at Shushtar, until the late Qajar period. With the increase in the international sea commerce, arriving on the shores of Khuzistan, Ahvaz became a more suitable location for the provincial capital. The River Karun is navigable all the way to Ahvaz (above which, it flows through rapids). The town was thus refurbished by the order of the Qajar king, Naser al-Din Shah and renamed after him, Nâseri. Shushtar quickly declined, while Ahvaz/Nâseri prospered to the present day.

Khuzestan is known for its ethnic diversity; the population of Khuzestan consists of Lurs, Iranian Arabs, Qashqai people, Afshars, indigenous Persians (Dezfuli-Shushtari, Behbahani), Kurds and Iranian Armenians. Khuzestan's population is predominantly Shia Muslim, but there are small Christian, Jewish, Sunni and Mandean minorities. Half of Khuzestan's population is Lur.

Since the early 1920s, tensions on religious and ethnic grounds have often resulted in separatist violence, including an insurgency in 1979, unrest in 2005, bombings in 2005–06 and protests in 2011. The Iranian regime has drawn harsh criticism from international human rights organizations for its repressive measures against the religious and ethnic minorities in the region. However, the internal conflict was brought to a temporary halt in 1980 when Khuzestan was invaded by Ba'athist Iraq, leading to the Iran–Iraq War where Khuzestanis of all backgrounds fought alongside the Iranian military in resisting the Iraqi offensive. Currently, Khuzestan has 18 representatives in Iran's parliament, the Majlis. Meanwhile, it has six representatives in the Assembly of Experts, including Ayatollahs Mousavi Jazayeri, Ka'bi, Heidari, Farhani, Shafi'i, and Ahmadi.