For the Iranian New Year celebrations on March 21st, the regime of the mullahs likely won’t be celebrating. Simply connecting to Twitter gives one a glimpse of the surprises the rebellious youth have in store for the authorities in Tehran. This year more than ever, the burning fires of Zoroaster—born, they say, in Iran’s Ardabil province on the Caspian—could ignite several neighborhoods of the capital as well as the main streets of provincial cities.
On the last Wednesday before the spring equinox, the day of “Norooz”, the Zoroastrian festival of “Chaharshanbe Souri” takes place. Despite its recurring attempts, the contemporary Iranian regime has never succeeded in eradicating it from popular traditions. Symbolizing the victorious battle of Ahura Mazda against the forces of darkness, this pre-Islamic celebration—Shi’ism has only been the state religion in Iran since 1501—consists of gathering all the residents of a neighborhood around a fire fueled by old household furniture. It involves a particular ceremony: participants briskly leap over the flames while chanting incantations “zardie man az to, sorkhie to az man” which call to “cast away one’s weaknesses and draw strength from the fire” for the year to come. Always under the watchful eye of Islamic militias who consider it an unacceptable remnant of an ancient belief opposed to the Muhammadan dogma meant to perfect the believer’s commitment, a “degeneracy” even according to Leader Ali Khamenei, this year’s ceremony on March 17th is expected to take on particularly violent forms: the most determined opposition activists are announcing the making of Molotov cocktails to fuel a “more purifying fire than ever.”
As a sign of the risks of bloody outbursts and massive arrests, the leaders of the “green wave” have suddenly multiplied calls for moderation: Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and former president Hashemi Rafsanjani have each urged young Iranians to “express their demands calmly” to be “better heard.” Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, also expressed her fears in a long interview with the site www.kaleme.org. In vain. The active minority now rejects “any guidance by the reformists” and demands the abolition of the Velayat-e faqih, the religious principle at the heart of the Islamic republic’s institutions.
Even if dispersed, this movement benefits from a wide wave of solidarity from artists hitherto unknown to the general public: spontaneously, they create videos, compose scores, draw graffiti, or paint protest posters, finding themselves united under the banner of “Green Art”, which mixes revolutionary slogans, death wishes, and symbolism.
The end of the New Year will not signal the cessation of hostilities for Iranian political leaders. The protest movement is expected to exploit another event shortly after, that of the thirteenth day after “Norooz.” Less followed in modern times, “Sizda bedar” invites people to leave their homes with all doors and windows open to spend an entire day in the countryside or forest, allowing “bad spirits” to vacate the places they occupied the previous year. From “bad spirits” to the Basijis that still “haunt” Iran, there’s only one step that young Iranians are ready to take. One of them, released on bail for two hundred thousand euros—there are no small profits for the mullahs—regretted saying he has little hope of seeing the situation improve favorably without resorting to violence. He quoted the late Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou, who passed away about a decade ago: “Man an rooz ro entezar mikesham, hatta roozi ke khod digar nabasham”: “I have waited so long for this day, may it come even if it’s after my death.”
### Attached Documents
[poster_iranok.bmp](https://www.nicepremium.fr/404.jpg)
