Dewaznaw Village on the down skirt of Shaho Mountain is located 45 kilometers from Sawlawa town in Sna Province. Dewaznaw possesses an ancient history and civilization. This place is surrounded by Palangan, Dalamarz, and Jolana villages.
Dewaznaw is one of those villages that has never been abandoned completely and people kept living there forever. 160 families are living in this village right now occupying in keeping livestock, making handcrafts, and the most important thing, fish farming. This village is the largest center for fish farming.
Dewaznaw possesses a thousand-year-old history and it used to be a place where the followers of Zarathustra and Mithra confronted each other. The evidence and sources say that after the Zoroastrian religion rose and succeeded over the Mithra religion, Dewaznaw became a hiding place for the clergymen of Mithraism, and after time passed by this confrontation and conflict happened between the followers of Islam and Yarsan religions. This is the reason for ideological and religious struggles being written down as a complicated history.
There are various ideas about the name of this village. Some believe that Dewaznaw belonged to the Greek Empire and they say that this is an old Greek word which means mountains in which springs and rivers come from them. Some others reject this notion and say during Mithra this village's name was "Pawi" and after Zarathustra rose, it became a shelter for those who did not believe in Zoroastrianism, thus, they called it "Dew and Yasna" which means the place of those who are non-believers and later it changed into Dewaznaw.
Dewaznaw is a well-known village and one of the reasons for being popular is the natural beauty of this village. It is true that we cannot ignore Hawraman's beautiful nature in general but Dewaznaw's scenery is spectacular. The village is located on the down skirt of Shaho mountain. Sirvan River is passing by the village, too. The mountains surrounding Dewaznaw are unique and in each season, they appear in a different and beautiful form. These mountains are covered in various kinds of plants, herbs, and trees like Pistacia atlantica (the tree from which local gum is produced), judas trees, and oak trees. These trees are all naturally growing in the mountains. There are Judas trees more than the other kinds which are mostly used for making different tools and objects due to their flexibility. These objects and tools are specially made in Hawraman and are a part of this region's handicrafts. This tree also makes the village and its nature much more beautiful.
We mentioned earlier that Dewaznaw is one of the largest centers for fish farming in the area. Dewaznaw residents began a project for fish farming a few years ago due to its suitable climate and clean water resources that come from the mountains of Hawraman and fortunately, their project has succeeded and is still working. This project has become a good financial source for the people of this village. The fish produced here is sent to the near and far cities.
We should mention that in other villages in Hawraman, there is a fish farming industry, too.
Fish farming in Dewaznaw is not a new thing but this occupation has been a part of this village's professions from many years ago. In the past, when industrial development was much less than nowadays, residents of Dewaznaw exchanged fish with whatever they needed while traveling to other cities, however, in the past few years this occupation has been developed a lot and fish farming centers have been built to develop this profession.
Dewaznaw has always been a tourist destination. In the past, the people of the surrounding villages and cities used to visit here like Marivan, Sna, Pawa, and … but since a few years ago, due to social media and the development of connections, this beautiful village has been introduced to more people and not only form other cities of Kurdistan but also from other parts of Iran people come to visit Dewaznaw. International tourists also come to visit this village, lately.
In addition to the high mountains and the natural scenery of Dewaznaw, there is another thing that has made this village more beautiful; a soccer field near the river. This field is a place for people to exercise and for the children, the youth, and the tourists to play there.
Undoubtedly, if someone had gone to Dewaznaw and seen its clean and spectacular nature, they would have missed it and would have wanted to go back there again.
