NCRI – The head of Iran’s State Security Forces has banned fire festival celebrations from public spaces over fears that people may use the festivities to stage protests against the regime.
National police chief Ismail Ahmadi-Moghadam has ordered that celebrations can only be carried out privately within families to avert the risk of demonstrations against the ruling dictatorship.
He said in a speech on Sunday: “Police will not permit the ceremony of the last Wednesday of year to be held in parks.
“The police is against any coordinated gathering, and believes that the experience of having them in streets and neighbourhoods is much more successful and this must is how it must be done again this year.
“Gatherings in parks and public places are not a good experience for the police because they turn into clashes and disturbances.
“The ceremony of the last Wednesday of the year must be held alongside the family.
The Iranian regime’s police chief also avoided using the traditional name of the fire festival, Chaharshabe-Suri, instead simply referring to it as ‘the ceremony’.
Ahmadi-Moghadam has also been named by US Treasury Department as having provided ‘material support’ and personnel to Syria to help President Assad in suppressing his people.
The police chief’s comments come after other senior regime figures said the ancient fire festival should be outlawed because it represents ‘negative cultural behaviour’ that poses a threat to the government.
Meanwhile the Iranian regime’s Education Ministry in Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari Province has ordered its staff not to participate in the fire festival ceremony. Security forces also threatened the staff that if they came out of their houses on that day, they would be extremely dealt with and fired.
The population has traditionally used the event on the last Wednesday of the Iranian year to air their grievances against leaders of Iranian regime.
