Home >> Middle East >> Iran  Email  Print Iranian regime’s suppressive ploys to counter planned protests for Fire Festival Shahriar Kia - 3/11/2010 In anticipation of confronting the religious dictatorship ruling Iran, the Iranian people are preparing themselves to celebrate the traditional Fire Festival (March 16) or Chaharshanbeh Souri, an occasion widely expected to see protests against the clerical regime. People in Tehran and the provinces have started preparing for the event several days ahead.
According to the reports by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI)from inside the country during the past several nights, despite heavy security presence meant to intimidate the population, sounds of fireworks are heard in various parts of Tehran. The suppressive State Security Forces (SSF) vehicles patrol the streets, where they are greeted with the youths’ hand-made fireworks grenades from rooftops.
In the southern city of Shiraz, the sounds of fireworks grenades exploding are heard in various areas. In the central city of Isfahan, youths sarcastically compared their use of fireworks and explosions to a military exercise on the occasion of the Fire Festival.
With regards to the regime’s suppressive measures, the Deputy Commander of the SSF in Greater Tehran has said: “We have had meetings with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and [paramilitary] Bassij are patrolling various parts of Tehran and across the country.”
Ahmad-Reza Radan also warned people against various forms of protest, including creating traffic and honking, saying: “We are very sensitive with regards to the probability of streets, squares, and junctures becoming limited by vehicles and pedestrians. These people will definitely be arrested and there is coordination with the judiciary so that anyone who blocks roads would have their car confiscated during the holidays. Certainly there are not a lot of these kinds of people.”
The city of Jiroft’s Friday prayer leader, Ali Zadsar Jirofti, described the Fire Festival as leverage against the regime, saying: The opponents are planning to turn the Fire Festival into a leverage against the establishment.
While linking the ancient Fire Festival to the foreign countries, he added: I think this year’s Fire Festival has a particular political overtone such that there is training for rioters on the internet and satellite TV channels, and they have put the creation of riots and destruction of public property during Fire Festival as their top priority.
State-run media continuously broadcast reports about the confiscation of fireworks. The state-run TV boasted about images of destroying some of the confiscated explosives, saying: “Offenders planned to distribute this material among youths and teenagers.”
The SSF Commander, Sajedinia, said that 23,080,000 kilos of hand-made fireworks have been confiscated thus far. He warned: This will definitely continue in the days ahead
The Iranian regime fearing another mass anti-regime uprising during the annual Fire Festival celebration (Chaharshanbeh Souri, March 16), has given special guidelines to its repressive forces to prevent participation of students in the festivity.
The repressive measures include:
- Summoning parents of students to schools to put pressure on them to prevent their children from going out on the day of festivity. Regime's authorities are warning them that if their children were to be arrested, they will not be released until the last day of Iranian New Year holidays in April.
- Members of Bassij force in schools have been told to write essays about the dangers associated with Fire Festival. Prizes will be given to 150 Bassij members for writing such essays.
The state-run radio and TV station have been ordered to broadcast series of programs with the theme of “enlightening and warning” families and the young general in the run-up to Fire Festival. To this end a 90-minute program has been recorded that shows the dangers of fire crackers and Fire Festival ceremonies in addition to another 30-minute program that introduces the Fire Festival in a way approved by the regime. These two pieces are going to be shown widely by various TV channels, which are all run by the regime.
In spite of all of the mullahs’ ploys to prevent the outburst of the Feast of Fire festivities on the eve of March 17th, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) , by chanting “death to the principle of velayat-e faqih (absolute rule of clergy).”and “Death Dictoator” and “Death to Khamenei”, has called for evermore wide-range Feast of Fire festivities, commemorating this day as a national day for Iranians. The Iranian people, who have revolted against the clerical regime are not going to be intimidated and lured by such ploys and are going to continue with their display of hate and rage at the entire religious fascism ruling Iran.
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