ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Head of the Reconstruction and Reform Alliance Ammar al-Hakim stressed that Feyli Kurds have been subjected to great injustice and their rights have to be protected and preserved.

Receiving a delegation of Feyli Kurds in Baghdad on Wednesday, Hakim stressed that job opportunities must be created for members of the minority, according to a statement from Hakim's office.

"Job opportunities must be created for the Feyli youth and have their potential utilized," Hakim said. "What helps a project like this is the relative stability Iraq is seeing."

Hakim added that "Feyli Kurds were subjected to serious oppression and it is now time for the children of this dignified community to come up with a project that will unite everyone and demand our rights logically and realistically and end just mentioning the suffering without any actual work."

Feyli Kurds are Shiites who have mainly live in southern Baghdad and in some of the disputed areas on the southern areas in the Kurdistan Region. There is also a large population in Iran.

In the parliamentary election last year, Feyli Kurds were for first time been granted a minority seat, assigned in Wasit province. Feyli Kurds do not live predominantly in Wasit, however. Feyli Kurds were angry about the decision to assign their minority seat to the province because they felt as though they were being expelled from Baghdad.

In Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, they historically have been wealthy leaders in the business community and strong supporters of Kurdish independence movements. That, along with their Shiite faith, made them the target of persecution by the regime of Saddam Hussein which is now labeled as genocide by an Iraqi high court.

Thousands were killed and as many as 1.4 million were stripped of their citizenship and deported to Iran between the 1960s and 1980. After the overthrow of Hussein's regime, less than 15,000 have returned. Today many Feyli Kurds still do not have citizenship documents. They feel dismissed by both Erbil and Baghdad.

The historical home of Feyli Kurds is disputed territories between Iraq and Kurdistan Region such as Khanaqin and Mandali along the border with Iran.

Rudaw