One Dead, 85 Injured in Tehran’s Fire Festival Celebrations
Chaharshanbe Suri, celebrated on the last Wednesday before the Persian New Year (Nowruz), is an ancient Iranian festival where people traditionally jump over small bonfires as a purification ritual.
A spokesperson for Tehran Province Emergency Services announced on Tuesday evening that one person has died and 85 others have been injured during incidents related to Chaharshanbe Suri - the Festival of Fire - celebrations over the past 48 hours.
Shervin Tabrizi told ILNA news agency that a 35-year-old man died during the celebrations.
Of the injured, 43 were transported to medical centers, while 41 received treatment at the scene. Among the casualties, 69 were men and 16 were women.
Jalal Maleki, spokesperson for the Fire Department, reported that since the beginning of March, six people have lost their lives in Fire Festival-related incidents, with 822 injuries recorded nationwide.
The injuries include 72 amputations, 303 eye injuries, and 527 cases of burns.
City officials report fewer incidents this year compared to last year’s celebrations. However, emergency services warned that the number of accidents was likely to increase after 8 PM as evening celebrations intensified.
Chaharshanbe Suri, celebrated on the last Wednesday before the Persian New Year (Nowruz), is an ancient Iranian festival where people traditionally jump over small bonfires as a purification ritual.
Activist Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison and 178 Lashes
Branch 2 of the Rasht Criminal Court has sentenced Iranian activist and former political prisoner Hamideh Zarei to one year and six months in prison and 178 lashes.
The sentence includes nine months of imprisonment and 74 lashes for “disrupting public order,” nine months for “resisting law enforcement officers,” 74 lashes for “insulting an officer on duty,” and 30 lashes for “causing non-visible injuries.”
Zarei was arrested on February 3 after appearing at the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Rasht as part of her forced residency sentence.
She was detained for not wearing the mandatory hijab, which led to new charges. She spent 29 days in detention at Rasht Central Prisonbefore being released on bail on March 3, according to a report from the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
During her detention, Zarei was reportedly physically assaulted by two officers from the Rasht Prosecutor’s Office Protection Unit, resulting in wrist injuries.
Zarei had previously been arrested on June 5, 2024, after being summoned to Rasht Court.
In November 2023, she was sentenced to one year in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” later reduced to nine months.
Five journalists have been sentenced to a combined 10 years and 9 months in prison for their reporting on government corruption related to the 2022 Metropol building collapse in Abadan
Five journalists have been sentenced to a combined 10 years and 9 months in prison for their reporting on government corruption related to the 2022 Metropol building collapse in Abadan
Five journalists have been sentenced to a combined 10 years and 9 months in prison for their reporting on government corruption related to the 2022 Metropol building collapse in Abadan.
Branch 1 of the Abadan Revolutionary Court sentenced Mandana Sadeghi and Arash Qaleh-Golab each to 7 months and 16 days for “propaganda against the government” and an additional 3 years, 6 months, and 1 day for “assembly and collusion against national security.”
Reza Mohammadi, Sadeghi’s husband, and Farzaneh Yahya-Abadi each received 3 months and 1 day in prison for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Kourosh Karam-Pour, a poet and journalist, was sentenced to 2 years for “collaborating with opposition media and working with the monthly publication Khat-e Solh.”
The court cited mobile phone content, speeches, protest participation, media collaborations, and slogan chanting as evidence against the journalists.
The Metropol building collapsed on May 23, 2022, in Abadan, killing 43 people and injuring 37.
Investigations determined that construction violations and structural failures caused the disaster, with local officials later accused of corruption in the case.
For two years, three women lawyers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Argentina have investigated the Islamic Republic’s violent suppression of protests as part of a United Nations fact-finding mission
For two years, three women lawyers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Argentina have investigated the Islamic Republic’s violent suppression of protests as part of a United Nations fact-finding mission
For two years, three women lawyers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Argentina have investigated the Islamic Republic’s violent suppression of protests as part of a United Nations fact-finding mission.
They’ve interviewed victims, reviewed evidence, and documented what they have determined was a “crime against humanity” committed by the Islamic Republic.
In interviews with IranWire, the human rights experts - Sara Hossain, Shaheen Sardar Ali, and Viviana Krsticevic - share their personal impressions of the Iranian people and what they have learned through this intensive process.
Sara Hossain, head of the fact-finding mission, was still investigating the suppression of the Mahsa movement by the Islamic Republic when, in 2024, people in her own country, Bangladesh, took to the streets in a movement called “Quota Reform.”
Hossain was confronted with Iranian documents and narratives on one hand and the realities unfolding in her home country on the other.
🎥 سارا حسین، حقوقدان و رییس هیات حقیقتیاب سازمان ملل، در جریان ارایه گزارش نهایی این هیات درباره سرکوب خشونتبار جنبش «زن، زندگی، آزادی» در پی گفتوگو با ایرانوایر پیام تبریک نوروزی خود را خطاب به ایرانیها عنوان کرد. او در این پیام، سال نو رو تبریک میگوید. pic.twitter.com/wmEjYOWDSa
— ایران وایر (@iranwire) March 17, 2025
The narratives and images of suppression were similar. Hundreds were killed, more than 400 people lost one or both eyes, and mothers embraced the shrouded bodies of their children.
Bangladesh’s Generation Z took to the streets for their rights and were suppressed, but their protests succeeded, and now they are seeking a different future.
Hossain, affected by both tragedies, shares parts of the events in Bangladesh while discussing Iranians - the young Iranians she had spoken with inside Iran.
She said she had asked if they wanted to stay in the country, given that many people had left Iran.
They had replied that they were not going anywhere, as it was their country, and they would fight for their rights and those of others there. She added that she had spoken about this many times and that their commitment had impressed her.
“I think that has really been the biggest learning over these two years - that wherever Iran is, and wherever those Iranians who believe in human rights and equality in justice may be, they all carry this incredibly strong and powerful sense of connection.”
🎥 ویویانا کرستیچویچ، حقوقدان و کارشناس هیات حقیقتیاب سازمان ملل در پیام نوروزی برای همه ایرانیها نوروزی صلحآمیز آرزو کرد. اوضمن آرزوی نوروزی صلحآمیز، ابراز امیدواری میکند که ایرانیها بتوانند این جشن باستانی را کنار خانوادههای خود با خوشحالی برگزار کنند. pic.twitter.com/4Fqi2qAKn2
— ایران وایر (@iranwire) March 17, 2025
The head of the fact-finding mission remembers her Iranian colleague and friend at Amnesty International Bangladesh, saying that she and all her colleagues in the human rights field are indebted to that man’s efforts.
Viviana Krsticevic is an Argentine lawyer who has spoken about dictatorships in Latin American countries.
Similar events can bring similar examples to mind. When I was talking to her about “compensation” as part of the justice process, Viviana gave an example of a justice-seeking mother whose child was killed on the Venezuela-Colombia border.
She referred to the El Amparo Massacre in October 1988 in a village of the same name near the Venezuela-Colombia border.
Venezuelan security forces opened fire on 14 unarmed men who were fishing, suspecting them of connections with Colombian guerrilla groups.
Eight years later, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held Venezuela responsible and demanded compensation and justice for the victims.
Viviana says that the justice-seeking mother embraced her and told this lawyer, “She hugged me and told us, the people who were there listening to her, ‘My son was not a cow, my son was not cattle. I don’t want money. What I want is justice.’”
“That profound sense of dignity for the lives of those who passed away- who cannot be exchanged for money - is very prevalent.”
Now, after two years of connecting with victims and investigating the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic, she says, “I have learned a lot during these two years of our mandates about Iran, its people, and its incredible long-term and rich history.”
She added, “The country’s diversity, the profound and beautiful flow of its language and poetry, and the complexity of its institutions and history - all intersect with the history of the world and the region.”
🎥 شهین سردار علی، حقوقدان و کارشناس هیات حقیقتیاب سازمان ملل در پی گفتوگو با ایرانوایر، به مناسبت نوروز و سال نو، برای ایرانیها صلح و امیدواری آرزو کرد. این پیام نوروزی، در جریان ارایه گزارش نهایی هیات حقیقتیاب درباره سرکوب جنبش «زن، زندگی، آزادی» بیان شده است. pic.twitter.com/JNHjUOjUyK
— ایران وایر (@iranwire) March 17, 2025
Shaheen Sardar Ali is a Pakistani lawyer who comes from a country neighboring Iran with a culture close to it.
She always has a smile on her face and mentions common words between Persian and Pashto in conversations.
When Sardar Ali was studying at the University of Peshawar in Pakistan, many Iranians were her fellow students.
Iranian culture is not foreign to her, and, according to her, she has always been fascinated by the Persian language, its beauty, poetry, civilization, culture, and the elegance that Iranians apply to everything they do.
But these two years of continuous work on the Iranian issue and interacting with Iranians around the world have increased this lawyer’s respect for the Iranian nation.
She said, “Despite the suffering, despite the trauma, they have not lost that sense of culture and civilization, and the way they have spoken has always been very measured.”