In Iran, people in several regions of the country have taken to the streets against the government for the traditional fire festival. A video published on the online channel 1500Tasvir showed dozens of people shouting in the capital Tehran on Wednesday night: "We are back, the uprising continues". Protests were also reported from the north and west of the country.
The demonstrators in the Tehran district of Ekbatan burned, according to the news portal Iranwire, a portrait of the spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the capital, women were also seen throwing their headscarves into the fires lit during the fire festival. Protesters also threw explosive devices at police vehicles.
In Iran, people – and especially many women – have been demanding more rights for months. The protests were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody. She was arrested by the morality police in September because she allegedly did not wear her headscarf properly. The security forces are taking massive action against the associated public protests. Recently, the demonstrations had become rarer.
"Death to the dictator"
Now, according to Iranwire, people took to the streets again in Amini's hometown of Saghes in Iran's Kurdish region. The protesters shouted "Death to the dictator" and security forces used tear gas against them.
In Bukan in the province of West Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran, demonstrators obstructed traffic by lighting fires. It had come to clashes with the police. The service 1500Tasvir also published pictures of a demonstration from the Caspian city of Rasht, located on the Caspian Sea, in which slogans against Khamenei were shouted.
This year's fire festival is the first since Mahsa Amini's death and subsequent protests. The festival, known in Iran as Chaharsandbe Suri, is celebrated every year on the night of the last Wednesday before the end of the Iranian year. This ends on 20 March.
Since the fire festival has its roots in pre-Islamic times, it is viewed critically by the country's Islamic leadership. But it is popular with young people. Many build fireworks for the event themselves, which repeatedly leads to injuries or even deaths. This year, according to the emergency services, eleven people were killed in the celebrations.