Playing with Fire? Banning Chaharshanbe Souri

Supreme Leader/Rahbar Ayatollah Khamene'i has apparently issued a fatwa against Iranians celebrating the ancient Iranian feast/ritual of Chaharshanbe Souri, a feast, the name of which is just "Wednesday feast," and which begins tonight and runs through tomorrow. It is celebrated on the Wednesday before Nowruz, March 21. And there is fire used in the ceremonies.

While some of the references, including the sparse Wikipedia entry, downplay any religious content and portray the feast as essentially an ancient Iranian preparation for Nowruz, I'm sure the element of fire in the ceremonies brand it as essentially a Zoroastrian feast in the eyes of the clerical establishment.

The Zoroastrians or Parsees may be the only religious minority of any size I haven't blogged about, but they're going to have to wait till my spring issue is out.

Again, though, for secular Iranians, it's a traditional, national Iranian celebration and the regime sees it as a pretext for shutting down demonstrations yet again.

But one thing even Khomeini never did was undercut the Persian element in Iranian culture in favoring the Islamic element. I have few doubts this is intended as an Islamic purity move, but also as a way of shutting off public demonstrations.