Persian New Year Celebrations Veil Political Undercurrents

March 21, 2005

Source: The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1442187,00.html

On March 21, 2005 The Guardian reported, "At first the ear-splitting explosions, blazing bonfires and choking stench of teargas could have been mistaken for the prelude to a new Iranian revolution. In reality the occasion, Chahar Shanbeh Souri, was celebratory. Iranians young and old, male and female, were gathered in Mirdamad Street, in one of Tehran's most affluent neighbourhoods, to mark the opening of festivities for Norouz, the new year in the ancient Zoroastrian calendar. Nevertheless, subversion - along with noise and smoke - hung heavy in the air as fashionably dressed young men lobbed firecrackers and set flame to piles of rubbish at the kerbside. No one present seemed in any doubt about the political undercurrents."