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Restrictions on medical and Fire Brigade personnel during Fire Festival
In a directive to Fire Brigade units, the Iranian regime has prohibited them from speaking to journalists or spread news about incidents on the day of the Fire Festival, March 6. This is part of the regime’s suppressive measures to combat people’s uprising during the festival. According to the directive, the headquarters for prevention of fire of the Fire Brigade is responsible to handle queries on that day.
Officials of the regime have warned the personnel of the Fire Brigade that if they ignored the directive, they would face dire consequences.
The regime has also instructed the personnel of the medical centers not to release the names of people who would be referred to them during the festival. The regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security has instructed the medical centers to report the names of people injured during protest moves only to certain centers.Mullahs announce discovery of astronomical numbers of fire crackers
regime’s authorities of various ranks have in recent days come to the scene one after another to announce news about “discovery operations and confiscation of combustible material” as well as the arrest of sellers and distributors of these materials. This is due to an instruction given by under the orders of the regime’s Supreme National Security Council.
According to these news reports, published daily and primarily by Mehr and Fars news agencies, which are affiliated with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ahmad-Reza Radan, the Deputy Commander of the regime’s State Security Forces (SSF), Colonel Mohsen Khancharli, Deputy of SSF Command of Operations, Mohammad-Ali Nosrati, SSF Commander in Tabriz, Ebrahim Qaed Rahmati, SSF Commander in Kurdistan, and many other commanders of the regime’s suppressive forces, have announced in the past three weeks that more than 72 million pieces of fire crackers and 45 tons of combustible material have been discovered. Taking into account the population of Iran, this implies that a package of explosives has been confiscated from every Iranian.
Mullahs issue religious decrees in opposition to traditional Fire Festival celebrations
mullahs in Iran have issued fatwas or religious decrees against the traditional annual celebrations known as Fire Festival (Chaharshanbeh Suri), which takes place on the last Wednesday of the Iranian calendar year (March 16, 2010). The mullahs declared the celebrations to be against Sharia law and akin to “superstition” while calling on Iranians to refrain from participating in it.
The state-run Mehr news agency reported from Qom that mullah Jafar Sobhani has described the Fire Festival as an example of false traditions. “Leaping over a bonfire and saying some words … is not at all appropriate,” he said, referring to the specific Fire Festival tradition that includes people going into the streets and alleys to make fires, and jump over them while singing the song Sorkhi-ye to az man, zardi-ye man az to. The literal translation is: Your fiery red color is mine, and my sickly yellow paleness is yours.
Sobhani warned Iranians “not to become subject to matters that run counter to Sharia law and wisdom.”
The Fire Festival has been held across Iran every year in anticipation of the New Year, but it has also taken a political dimension because people use it as an opportunity to express their anger and opposition to the ruling dictatorship while burning posters and pictures of the regime’s leaders.
Psychological warfare, deception and Internet filtering to contain uprising during Fire Festiv
In a bid to encourage the youth to keep silence and remain inactive during the Fire Festival, the Iranian regime's intelligence organs that oversee these actions have distributed deceptive guidelines asking the participants to be silent in order “not to give excuses to those who seek violence (the Iranian regime's suppressive force),” “not to raise our (protesters) expectations,” and not to chant slogans targeting the foundations of the regime. They even distributed messages calling for the “boycott of Chaharshanbe Souri” to astray and pacify the youth.
After weeks of failed propaganda to portray the celebration as superstitious and contradictory to Islamic teachings, the regime recently has resorted to a new tactic of trying to highlight the so-called positive aspects of the event. By doing so the regime's news media encourage people to refrain from having fireworks and protests and instead cook soups and observe other traditional customs.
Meanwhile, the Telecommunications Company of Iran which is controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has already started filtering the internet such that since Tuesday the lines have become very slow and disrupted.
Conclusion:
Khamenei’s remarks, aimed at preventing the outbreak of uprising during the fire festival, come at a time when threats and intimidations by highest authorities of the regime and officials of the suppressive forces along with the so-called “discovery operations and confiscation of combustible material” in addition to the officials crocodile tears for “adverse consequences of fire festival for young people…” have failed to discourage Iranians, in particular the brave youths, to take part in the national uprising during the festival.
