New year party gets political on streets of Tehran

[democratic]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1442156,00.html

Robert Tait in Tehran
Monday March 21, 2005

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.

"This is a way for people to use their national traditions to show their opposition to the regime," said a man called Reza, before hurrying away, saying that the security forces were lurking nearby.

Stretching back 2,500 years, the significance of Chahar Shanbeh Souri for Iranians is comparable to Christmas in the west. But its pre-Islamic roots have rendered it an object of hostility to the country's hardline clerical establishment. After the 1979 revolution, the authorities tried to ban the celebration, deeming it an affront to Islamic mores.

But with many Iranians chafing against the regime's austere brand of Shia Islam, the festival has increasingly been used to express displeasure with the government.

Muhammad Ghodzi, 28, a student, bristled with anger as he criticised the regime. "We hate their brand of Islam because it spills blood," he said. "This is a sort of Islam that keeps people backward. But young people nowadays think."

Asked what kind of political system he wanted, he replied: "Democratic, with a separation between religion and politics ... We will sacrifice our lives for democracy and freedom."