The New York Times reported today (03/15) that the Iranian government will proceed with the execution of six people arrested in December protests in an attempt to intimidate the opposition ahead of the planned protest on the traditional celebration of Chahar Shanbe Soori, the feast of fire. This day is the last Wednesday before Norouz, the Iranian New Year which marks the arrival of spring. Since the Iranian revolutions, this event has been marked on the last Tuesday night where people traditionally go out into the streets, making bonfires and jumping over them, while singing, zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man, symbolically getting rid of problems and sickness and replacing it with energy and health.

The tradition, the Feast of Fire, goes back thousands of years to Zoroastrian times and has been banned in Iran in recent decades because of its non-Islamic roots and just days ago the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in fear of the revival of the recent protests, issued a decree saying the feast “has no religious basis and is harmful and must be avoided.” Khamenei’s decree is nothing new, the ruling mullahs ever since the revolution have been trying to usurp our Persian heritage and replace it with Arab/Islamic events.

Forcing Iranians to adhere to a strict Islamic dress code is the least of it. We have been subjected to amputation as the punishment for stealing, lashing for drinking, stoning for adultery, and execution by hanging from cranes for speaking against our rulers. So the announcement today by the Iranian government to execute the people who had demanded freedom and democracy should not be a surprise to the world, what’s surprising is the deafening silence of the world community!