Arash Aramesh

On the eve of the last Wednesday in the Persian calendar, the Iranian people set up small fires on streets to celebrate the coming of the new year. This centuries-old tradition has always been questioned by some members of the clergy in Iran. Regardless of the clergy’s opposition, which has intensified since the clergy’s rise to power in 1979, large crowds in Iran celebrated this day without any major violent clashes with security forces. That may not be the case this year.

The opposition Green Movement has managed to hold demonstrations on every major holiday since the June 12 election to voice its opposition to the results of that election and the illegitimacy of the President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government. Today, however, is neither an official holiday nor a day of planned demonstrations by the Green Movement. It is the last week in the Iranian calendar and the mixture of fireworks, illegal explosive and agitated crowds can potentially lead to clashes between protestors and security forces.

Fearing the outbreak of possible clashes with protestors, the Iranian government has been trying for weeks to discourage people from celebrating this day. Iranian security forces are especially worried that this day may turn into a street battle between the supporters of the Green Movement armed with homemade fireworks and explosives, and the security forces including the Basij, the police, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Kayhan, Iran’s largest state-owned newspaper, dedicated its front page March 15 to graphic pictures of individuals severely burned by illegal fireworks. Fars, a news site close to the IRGC, has published various news pieces about residential units in Tehran that were burnt as a result of such illegal explosives. Iranian television went out of its way this year to broadcast some of the most gruesome images of individual badly burnt by such devices.

Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, Iran’s police chief, Ahmad-Reza Radan, Ahmadi-Moghaddam’s deputy, and Hossein Sajedinia, Tehran’s police chief, have made numerous statements outlining police’s plans to counter any illegal activity intending to start riots and unrest in Iran. In an interview with ISNA, the Iranian Students News Agency, Sajedinia, who was recently appointed Tehran’s chief of police, said, “Police units have been located in sensitive parts of Tehran.” According to eyewitness reports, police presence is very strong and riot units fully equipped with riot gear and weapons are all over Tehran.

Recently, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei made his feelings public about this ceremony by announcing that such festivities were un-Islamic and had no place in the Islamic tradition. Neither Mir Hossein Moussavi nor Mehdi Karroubi have called for demonstrations, fearing the government’s explosive reaction to what already is a powder keg situation in Iran’s capital.