Dancing and jumping over fire, Iranians use holidays to defy rules
Iranians have in recent months looked for opportunities to resist the clerical government’s rules. Many found an opportunity during Tuesday night’s annual fire festival.
Across Iran, thousands of men and women filled the streets as they danced wildly to music and joyfully jumped over large bonfires, according to to videos on social media and interviews with Iranians. Police said crowds in Tehran and other cities were so heavy that traffic came to a standstill for hours and commuters struggled to reach public transport, according to Iranian news reports.
Dancing, especially for men and women together, is banned in public in Iran and has long been a form of protest.
In many places the rallies turned political, with the crowds chanting: “Freedom, freedom, freedom,” “Death to the dictator” and “Get lost, clerics,” he said. videos and interviews with participants. In the city of Rasht in northern Iran, crowds of security guards riding past on motorcycles booed. videos shown.
Iranians celebrated the ancient Persian tradition of Chaharshanbeh Suri before the upcoming new year, Nowruz, which falls on the first day of spring. During a ritual on the eve of the last Wednesday of the year, people jump over the fire to cleanse the spirit of the malaise of the old year and accept the glow of the flames in preparation for the new year.
The dancing crowd was another example of how far away much of Iranian society, especially the youth, has moved from the ruling clerics. “People are so happy, if God wants the overthrow of the Islamic Republic,” a narrator of the celebrations in the city of Karaj said in a video published by BBC Persian.
When the revolution overthrew the monarchy in 1979, the new spiritual rulers proclaimed an Islamic theocracy and for years discouraged and even cracked down on Persian celebrations that predated Islam, including Chaharshanbeh Suri. But Iranians continued to celebrate the ritual, which they consider an inseparable part of Iranian culture.
“Celebrating Persian holidays and holding joyful gatherings have become inherently political, which is why we also see anti-government slogans,” said Nahid Siamdoust, assistant professor of media and Middle East studies at the University of Texas at Austin. “These festivities unite Iranians across the country and offer people the opportunity to demonstrate a sociality that contradicts the state-imposed culture.”
In some apartment complexes in Tehran and other cities, DJs played Persian pop songs as packed crowds danced and sang along. videos on social media and BBC Persian. In other places, parked cars blared music from speakers in an open trunk. Young women, with flowing hair in defiance of the mandatory hijab law, danced on top of cars and in groups.
People circled the fire and held hands as they sang “For Women, for Life, for Freedom” from the lyrics of “Baraye,” an anthem of the 2022 women-led uprising. videos shown on BBC Persian. Singer and songwriter Shervin Hajipour won a Grammy Award last year for the song. This month, Iran sentenced Mr. Hajipour to prison. Singing his song Tuesday was a way to show solidarity, said Narges, a 35-year-old in Tehran who asked that her last name not be used for fear of retaliation.
There were reports on social media of sporadic clashes between the crowd and security forces. One video showed it forces that dispersed crowds near Narmak in Tehran by smashing the windows of a cafe where people had gathered to dance.
Every year there are casualties during the festivities due to the unsafe handling of homemade explosives and fireworks. At least 14 people were killed and nearly 1,800 suffered burn injuries, according to official media reports, according to Iran’s emergency center.