Iran Election Stories From Friends and Family

From Iran today:

March 14, 2010 Let me Explain

Chahar Shanbeh Soori takes place the Wednesday eve before the Iranian new year, or No Ruz. I don’t know how Zoroastrians celebrate it, but the rest of us Iranians usually get together with friends, party, light off firecrackers and light up numerous bonfires that we then proceed to jump over. When we jump over the fires we say, “Zardieh man az toh, sorkhieh toh az man.” (which means something like – all my yellowness (impurities) to you, and all your redness (clean, freshness) to me). It is symbolic of purifying oneself of the junk of the old year and entering the new year clean and pure.

In the past few years this particular celebration has gotten out of hand. The firecrackers are literally deafening. People get limbs burned and blown off. Houses catch fire (the usual where firecrackers are used). The atmosphere has also in the recent few years reflected the dissatisfaction and protests of the youth. About five years ago Chamran Blvd looked like a war zone. A police car was set on fire there and it was out of control. The very next year the authorities clamped down and made this ceremony illegal on main thoroughfares. We have had three years of tough laws and LOTS of security personnel out on the streets the days leading up to the ceremony.

This year is even tougher. I read on one website that a government official explained that their goal was to eliminate this ceremony from the Iranian scene within the next two years. See, it’s talk like that that gets them into trouble. This ceremony is a very old, cultural ceremony. When I was a kid we used to get together in our neighborhoods and jump over fires. It was fun – but not a big deal. We’d hear firecrackers. We had a great time. A few years ago they made it illegal to light fires on the asphalt – an attempt to eliminate the ceremony by making it impossible for people to light fires in their neighborhoods and do their thing. So, people moved out of the neighborhood and lit many more (and louder) firecrackers, because they weren’t allowed to light fires anymore. It is really twisted now frankly.

But the fact that government officials talk about the total elimination of this ceremony gets people all riled up. They see it not as a safety issue, but as yet another assault on their cultural heritage by this totalitarian pseudo-Islamic regime! Many people say, “We have one night of shadi (festivity) and this government wants to take it away from us.” I certainly understand the safety issues. I lived in the US when they went through a similar analysis and made free wheeling fireworks illegal – now one has to get a permit. But I think they did it in a much more reasonable manner. The government officials said they that while they did not want to eliminate the New Years tradition, they did want to make it safer. And so you have to get a permit to light certain types of fireworks there. Here, in Iran, on the other hand, they have stated that they want to eliminate the tradition completely as it isn’t Islamic.  Ayatollah Khamenei even went so far as to declare it Haraam (religiously unclean) this year. Well, frankly, that makes people resist.  Although Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi turned around and declared that it was religiously ok for people to celebrate.

I have heard firecrackers go off every day and night now for the past week and a half. It is music to my ears.  Everyone I know plans on jumping over bonfires on Tuesday night. But the government is flexing it muscles. Just yesterday I was out with a friend at Afifabad (the “IN” place for young people to hang out these days.) There was a heavy police presence as usual. But somehow it felt different to me. I felt tension in the air. Then I heard sirens and saw two cop cars drive quickly down the street – one filled with young men and the other with women. They were telling people to get out of the way. A cabbie I spoke with later said that he had observed similar incidents lately. He said the government was picking up the youth and keeping them in prison until after Chaharshanbeh Soori to prevent them from celebrating. A short time later that night I saw Sepah officers and eventually military clothed personnel on the street. So I guess it wasn’t my imagination. It is tense this year – particularly after the summer of discontent we have had here! Nothing is calm. Nothing is normal. Tension fills the air.