Source: Manila Times [Philippines]
“Fresh anti-regime protests took place overnight alongside celebrations for Iran’s traditional fire festival in the runup to the Persian New Year, monitors said on Wednesday. Video footage posted on social media showed groups of Iranians chanting anti-regime slogans, throwing headscarves into fires and burning images of the clerical leadership. The fire festival, called ‘Chaharshanbe Suri’ in Farsi, is celebrated every year on the night of the last Tuesday of the Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20. It is part of Iran’s pre-Islamic heritage and generally frowned upon by the Shiite clerical establishment, but is popular with young people. … In the capital, protesters set fire to a banner of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Ekbatan neighborhood, [the IranWire website] added.” (03/15/23)