NOROUZ (Persian New Year)

The Year Past & the Year to Come...

On the occasion of Norouz, we at World With Iran would like to wish all those in Iran who are repressed and are fighting for their freedom, and those across the world who support them; a very Happy Persian New Year - "Norouz Piruz, Norouz Mobarak!" ! نوروز پیروز ~ نوروز مبارک

To say that you are not alone & we as well as others around the world are with you, supporting you in you fight for liberty and justice.


One cannot but help reflect upon this past year, so full of hope for change, so full of sadness for those who have been killed, raped, beaten and imprisoned.

This coming year is going to be decisive in the struggle for those inside Iran who are seeking liberty & the respect of their Human Rights, and our support from outside Iran is vital to continue giving them the strength to go on with this battle in defense of these universal values.

Here are two sets of Videos to reflect upon. The first set are from Norouz this year (the night of the 20th March 2010). 
The first shows a spontaneous crowd of people who had gathered at the tomb of the great Persian poet, Hafez. At the moment of the New Year, the crowd cries out the name of the opposition leader "Mir Hossein" Mousavi:

The following two videos were filmed on the rooftops of Tehran where the people were protesting against the regime officials by shouting out "Allah-o Akbar" ("God is great"), at the very moment that Ahmadinejad & Khamenei were giving their official Norouz message on Iranian TV:

The last set of videos date from June 2009, the month of the fraudulent elections in Iran after Ahmadinejad had been 'officially' declared the winner. Here we hear the cries from the roofs at night and a woman improvises a poem as she films the scenes. There are subtitles in English.

The first one dates from the night of the 21st June 2009, the second day of the brutal crackdown by the Iranian regime. She speaks of the diversity of the protestors, and of the need to never forget them, their voices & what they have endured:

Finally, this video is a remixed version of another improvised poem by the same woman & dates from the night of Friday the 19th June 2009 - asking "where is this country" where such atrocities take place:

Mousavi Norouz (Persian New Year) Message

First Couple of Iran’s Opposition Post Video Messages for Persian New Year

By ROBERT MACKEY, March 18, 2010

A message to the Iranian people from the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi, posted online to mark the Persian New Year.

One year after President Obama used the Web to send  a video greeting to the Iranian people on the occasion of the Persian New Year, Nowruz, the first couple of Iran’s opposition have posted defiant messages on Facebook to mark the holiday.

Mir Hussein Moussavi, who claims that he was robbed of victory in last year’s presidential election in Iran by fraud, released his video message to the Iranian people on Facebook on Thursday, two days before the year 1389 begins on Iran’s calendar. A note posted with the video promises that a complete English translation will be available soon, and includes this excerpt from Mr. Moussavi’s remarks:

The New Year is the year of resistance on these rightful and legal demands, and we do not have the right to give up and back off from these demands as that would be a betrayal to the nation, Islam and the blood of the martyrs. We have achieved this Constitution from the waves of the bloods of many martyrs, and we cannot lose that easily and we all should return to that.

Mr. Moussavi’s popular wife, Zahra Rahnavard, also posted a video message of her own on Facebook page, in which she said:

In this New Year we want to have freedom in our country again. We want the rule of law which one can say that at least it has been 200 or 300 years that human had tried to achieve it would dominate our country. We want the fraud and rumors be eliminated and discrimination in any form, could it be due to financial, class, economical, cultural or women’s affairs would be eliminated.

Ms. Rahnavard’s Facebook page also says that a complete English translation of her remarks will be posted soon.

Copies of both videos were posted on YouTube by the expatriate Iranian blogger Mehdi Saharkhiz, whose father, Isa Saharkhiz, is a political prisoner on a hunger strike in Iran.

Mr. Moussavi’s message is posted above. Click here to read his message in full in English.
 Here is Ms. Rahnazad’s video message:

Credits: New York Times - Lede Blog: First Couple of Iran's Opposition Post video Messages for Persian New Year

Chahar Shanbe Soori protests - filmed footage

Here are some of the latest video footage filmed by ordinary people in Iran, of protests & clashes with Basij forces occurring on the night of the 16th of March 2010 (for more info on the situation leading-up to these new protests by pro-democracy supporters, read the previous post), in a number of major cities across the country - cries of "Mad bad dictator" ["Death to the dictator"] can be heard:

For more videos go to the youtube pages of OnlyMehdy & GreenUnity4Iran

Khamenei issues fatwa against Chahar Shanbe Soori

Khamenei tells Iranians to shun fire festival

Sun 14 March 2010, 

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday urged Iranians to shun next week's Persian fire festival as an un-Islamic event which causes "a lot of harm."

Seven people have already been reported killed in the runup to the festival, ISNA news agency said, quoting a police chief.

Charshanbe Soori, an ancient pagan festival, is held on the eve of the last Wednesday of the Persian calendar year. This year, the ritual falls on the night of March 16.

Khamenei, Iran's all-powerful cleric, said on his website that Charshanbe Soori has "no basis in sharia (Islamic religious law) and creates a lot of harm and corruption, (which is why) it is appropriate to avoid it."

The festival is a prelude to Nowrouz, the Persian New Year which starts on March 21 and marks the arrival of spring.

In the past few years, local municipalities have helped Iranians organise the festival but it is unclear whether they will do so this year in the wake of Khamenei's remarks.

Iranians celebrate the fire festival by lighting bonfires in public places on the night before the last Wednesday and leaping over the flames shouting "Sorkhiye to az man, Zardiye man az to (Give me your redness and I will give you my paleness)."

Leaping over the flames symbolises the wish for happiness in the new year and an end to the sufferings of the past year.

Several casualties are reported from the event every year and many participants suffer burn wounds, including from accidents with firecrackers linked to the event, as they start marking the festivals days in advance.

Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan said that "so far seven people have been reported killed" while making or lighting firecrackers, ISNA reported, adding that most firecrackers are smuggled into Iran.

Some clerics see the ritual as heretical fire worshipping, although it has been marked in Iran for centuries and, like the Persian New Year itself and some other ancient rituals, has survived the advent of Islam.

Perceptions are that supporters of Iranian opposition leaders could use the ritual this year to stage anti-government protests.

Main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, however, has urged his supporters not to use the event for anti-government rallies and not to provoke hardliners during Charshanbe Soori.

Credits: AFP: Khanenei tells Iranians to shun fire festival

Khatami speaks out

IRAN: Former President Mohammad Khatami keeps the pressure on hard-liners

Los Angeles Times, 1 March 2010 

Mohammad Khatami, the soft-spoken former Iranian president who has come under criticism for not being brave enough in his rhetoric and actions, on Monday issued a polite but firmly worded rebuke of the current hard-line establishment.

Khatami's statement appeared to be a response to supreme leader Ali Khamenei's insistence that reformists like Khatami had forfeited their ability to participate in the country's political establishment by refusing to accept his divine ratification of last year's presidential elections.

Khatami also filled in some of the blanks in opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi's recent interview, forcefully slamming the foreign policy of the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"It is easy to create tensions in the world, but difficult to eliminate them," he said in an account of a meeting with students posted on his charity's website, Baran.org.ir (in Persian). "Detente requires courage and finesse, and the system has to take steps to that effect. We should not embark on adventurism in the world under pretext of having won so many enemies. We should hold back from speaking in a manner to inflict heavy costs."

But, like Mousavi, he failed to articulate a way forward, offering no specific on a course of action other than to say, “We have to mobilize our efforts.” 

Khatami insisted on his longstanding position that Iran would each its democratic aspirations if it would only return to the original path of the 1979 revolution charted by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"Everyone may have had his own interpretation of reforms, but we mean reforms within the framework of criteria born out of Islam, the revolution and the nation's will," he said. "In the face of any possible deviation from Islam and Imam Khomeini's line, we have to give warning." 

He continued, "Go and ask the former revolutionary militants if the ongoing conditions reflect what they were after. Ask them if these arrests, blame games, vendettas and the imposition of costs on the nation were what the revolutionary forces sought. If not, our conscience necessitates that we close ranks in order to improve conditions."

Though he failed to articulate any course of action, he urged supporters to remain steadfast.

"We should not retreat from our demands, and we should keep fighting even if certain groups beat us on the head," he said. "Unfortunately, certain hard-line groups in the society are opposed to any compromise within the society."

Credits: Los Angeles Times: IRAN: Former President Mohammad Khatami keeps the pressure on hard-liners

Photo: Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Credit: AFP/Getty Images