Iran Braces for Fire Festival Crackdown

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Traditional pre-Islamic celebration could be occasion for opposition protests.

Iranian officials are warning the opposition not to turn an ancient fire festival this week into a protest against the government.

The celebration of Chaharshanbe Soori, Red Wednesday, on the evening March 16 marks the last Wednesday of the Iranian year and is rooted in pre-Islamic Zoroastrian tradition as a rite of the arrival of spring and is thus rejected by the country's ruling Muslim clerics.

But this will be the first time the occasion has been marked since last June's presidential election, which sparked a resurgence of opposition to the regime by the Green Movement that believes the poll was rigged.

Another chance for the Green movement. All this talk about war and bunker-busters heading towards Iran hopefully will be replaced by positive results for the opposition tomorrow and leading up to the New Year on the 21st.

Nowrūz (Persian language: نوروز [noʊruːz]), meaning 'New Day') is the traditional ancient Iranian[1] festival and also the start day of Iranian "New Year".

The occasion has led to trouble and violence in the past because of rowdy behaviour by young people and the use of illegal home-made fireworks, which have also caused injuries.

Police appear to be braced for a large number of arrests and young people are reported to be preparing home-made firecrackers and even grenades packed with gravel as they have done in recent years, which will fill the Tehran streets with explosions, smoke, and the smell of gunpowder. A black-market trade has grown up in the items, some of which are made by school children who get the information from the internet.

Police say they have confiscated more than 30 tonnes of explosives in Tehran alone and seven people have been killed across the country while making firecrackers and other devices.

This use of home-made explosives on Red Wednesday festival has evolved over the last decade as young people manifest their frustration over official restrictions imposed on social freedoms and popular entertainment.

Something to take their frustration out on - blow something up (hopefully not themselves!), but hopefully regime state TV & Basij bikes.

Pro-Green Movement websites are recommending innovative methods such as "a Green silence - every Iranian should hold a candle and cry out loud, 'God is Great', and plant a tree", instead of taking part in violence and conflict with the authorities.

Or they could just plant a tree, and wait for the bombs to drop.....

A member of Association of Social Psychology in Iran thinks the Green Movement will be revived on Chaharshanbe Soori after its failure to persuade people to protest on February 11, the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. "I don't think it will be excessively violent, but clashes will certainly occur between the people and police," the person said.

Hopefully they can get something going again, but with lower expectations this time. This might leave the regime off-guard to be over-confident, where we might see something unexpected and big happening.

The head of Tehran's fire department, Mohammad Reza Haji Beigi, was quoted as saying, "We certainly will have serious problems in this year's Chaharshanbe Soori. We need to have special planning."

Last year, the fire service reported 135 serious fires in Tehran alone on Red Wednesday.

Clinics and hospitals have put medical staff on call as they have done in the past. Fars news agency reported that 1,117 people were injured during the event in 2007. Among them 887 needed hospital treatment mostly burned or hurt by gravel from grenades.

Even the moderate ordinary Iranian's can be wacky at times...... they probably think the same about our hospital records for alcohol poisioning and heart attacks.

Since the Islamic Republic took power in 1979, Chaharshanbe Soori celebrations have gradually evolved into a struggle between the public and the authorities.

With joyous occasions frowned upon in Iran, the Islamist government has for years attempted to put a stop to this 4,000-year-old ceremony. It tried to replace national events in the Iranian calendar like Nowruz, New Year, which were regarded as originating in an "pre-Islamic age of ignorance", with those derived from the Islamic and Shia traditions,

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a recent posting on his official website, urged Iranians to avoid Chaharshanbe Soori celebrations as an "un-Islamic" event and other key figures within the religious hierarchy have also shown their opposition to the festival.

Of course they oppose youngsters playing with explosives..... they realised long ago the day is coming where this holiday will be used against them.

Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi was quoted as saying, "These festivities are not suitable for Muslims." Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, the supreme leader's representative in Tabriz, announced, "This festival is nothing but superstition."

And the same can be said for any religious belief.

Some believe President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to eradicate the festival altogether. Tehran Governor Morteza Tamaddon, a close friend of Ahmadinejad, said on March 7, "With firm confrontation, we will try to erase the problem of Chaharshanbe Soori from people's minds in the next two years."

That will only have the opposite effect and the people will only make more exploding bombs, except this time to throw at Ahmadinejad's face!

In the traditional Chaharshanbe Soori, Iranians would come onto the streets and build bonfires. Men and women would jump over fire and dance while chanting verses special to the occasion.

These lines reveal the cultural importance of fire in the Zoroastrian culture and seek to replace a person's problems and ill-health with warmth and energy.

Sounds like fun, maybe I'll give it a go.....

The official rejection of Chaharshanbe Soori clashes with a natural desire of Iranian people to celebrate, leading to conflict with the police and turning what is meant to be a happy festival into a form of opposition.

A sociology professor at Georgetown University in Washington, Mehrdad Mashayekhi, believes violence by young people against the government is a psychological release, "When a government closes all the doors to its society, society finds ways to release its anger and frustration."

Sahar Sepehri is a journalist and media analyst based in Washington DC.

[edit on 15-3-2010 by john124]

It sounds like they are having as much trouble squashing that as the government of the U.S. would have if they tried to ban St. Patrick's day. Good luck with that, Ayatollah.