| Official Name: | Bandar-e Mahshahr |
| Native Name: | Persian: بندرماهشهر |
| Settlement Type: | City |
| Pushpin Map: | Iran |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Iran |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Khuzestan |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Mahshahr |
| Subdivision Type3: | District |
| Subdivision Name3: | Central |
| Population As Of: | 2016 |
| Population Total: | 550000 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Timezone: | IRST |
| Utc Offset: | +3:30 |
| Coordinates: | 30.5567°N 49.1897°W |
| Coordinates Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Code: | +98 |
Bandar-e Mahshahr (Persian: بندرماهشهر) is a city in the Central District of Mahshahr County, Khuzestan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.[2]
Most of its people spoke a dialect that was a mixture of Southern Luri and Bushehri, which is still spoken by some elderly people and by younger generations mostly in rural areas (the dialect though still thrives in Hendijan and especially Genaaveh). But now Mahshahrians are mainly Persian-speaking. Local Persians are mostly of Behbahani, Qanavati, and Bandari families. There is also a local Arabic-speaking minority whose roots go back to Qabban in Iraq.[3]
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the city's population was 109,927 in 24,110 households.[4] The following census in 2011 counted 153,778 people in 38,301 households.[5] The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 162,797 people in 45,208 households.[6]
On July 31, 2015, at around 4:30 PM Iran Daylight Time (3:10 PM apparent solar time), the air temperature measured at the Bandar-e Mahshahr airport was 46C, the dew point was 32C, and the relative humidity was 49%. This corresponds to a wet-bulb temperature of 34.6C, slightly below the 35C mark that is considered the maximum humans can tolerate, above which extended exposure will lead to death.[7] [8] Together, the city had a heat index of 74C, the second highest heat index ever recorded anywhere in the world.[7]
See main article: 2019 Iranian protests. In the 2019 Iranian fuel protests, Amnesty International confirmed that security forces killed 14 protestors in Bandar-e Mahshahr, a death toll higher than that of larger cities such as Tehran or Shiraz;[9] the New York Times reports between 40 and 100 protestors were killed in Mahshahr.[10]
The port of Bandar-e Mahshahr is immediately adjacent to the East of the port of Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni. It is specialized in oil and petrochemical products exports. It includes a Special economic zone used by the National Iranian Petrochemical Company and the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), the Special industrial economic zones 'Petzone'.
The port of Bandar-e Mahshahr is mostly used by tanker ships and is accessible through the same channel as the port of Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni, i.e. the 42 miles long, 45 meter deep Khor Musa channel.[11] [12]
Mahshahr has two universities. Islamic Azad University of Mahshahr and Amirkabir University of Technology, Mahshahr campus. Both universities concentrate on engineering programs, especially petroleum and petrochemical engineering.