Supreme Leader issues Fatwa against ancient Iranian festival

GVF -- The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) has published a religious decree or Fatwa regarding the ancient Iranian celebrations of Chaharshanbe Souri to be held on Tuesday night.

“Not only does it not have a basis in religion, but it entails a great deal of harm and corruption and it would be appropriate to be avoided,” the website quoted the Supreme Leader as saying.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was referring to the upcoming Chaharshanbe Souri celebrations which will take place across the country on Tuesday 16 March. Supporters of the Green Movement have also been gearing up for the occasion in order to voice their protest to the current illegitimate government of Ahmadinejad which came to power in June 2009 through a monumental fraud and widespread crackdowns that followed.

In recent weeks, different military and security officials have issued strong warnings and threats against anyone wishing to take to the streets on Tuesday in order to use the celebrations for staging protests against a government that is still struggling with a lack of internal legitimacy, nine months after the rigged presidential election of June.

In the same report, IRNA also cites rulings by other low-ranking Shiite clerics such as Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani, Seyed Hashem Hosseini Boushehri and Mahmoud Rajabi that disagree with the essence of the celebrations.

 The publication of such a decree just two days before the festivities and the manner it was published is a sure sign that authorities are anticipating a widespread participation of the Iranian people who will once again defy those who have deprived the Iranian people of their basic human and democratic rights.