Watch: Thousands Fill Kurdish Streets for Nowruz Celebrations Despite Official Opposition
Thousands of people across western Kurdish cities have taken to the streets in a display of cultural pride and defiance to celebrate the Persian New Year (Nowruz) with traditional dancing and festivities, despite official opposition.
چه جشنی و عجب “نەورۆز”ـی 🔥❤️
ت.ب. ئەو گۆرانیەم زۆر پێ خۆشە
بژی #سەقز بژی #کوردستان pic.twitter.com/ocLauuZqn3
— Hazhir (@HazhirKvn) March 15, 2025
نوروز ، فریاد آزادی کوردستان
با آغاز رسمی مراسم نوروزی از دهم اسفند در قسمت هایی از کوردستان ، بار دیگر شعله‌های آتش نوروز در سراسر کوردستان برافروخته می‌شود. این آتش، تنها نشانه بهار نیست، بلکه نماد مقاومت و هویت ماست.
امسال با پوشیدن لباس کوردی و رقص های دسته‌جمعی کوردی ،… pic.twitter.com/ebrhE5epmM
— کردستان به فارسی (@Kurdistan_Farsi) March 3, 2025
Videos circulating on social media platforms show men and women dancing together in public squares and streets, directly challenging the Islamic Republic’s strict prohibitions against mixed-gender dancing.
Local sources confirm that security forces have detained several people in connection with the celebrations.
نوروز در کوردستان
روستای قلاواری در #سرپل‌ذهاب#زن_زندگی_آزادی #نەورۆزی_بەرەو_ئازادی pic.twitter.com/VQ1CHWpKR7
— Mohamad Mohamadi سەرکەو (@Mohamad99209625) March 16, 2025
The Persian New Year, which falls on the spring equinox this Thursday, holds deep cultural significance across Iran.
🎥 روز جمعه ۲۴اسفند۱۴۰۳ به رغم تحت فشار قرار دادن شماری از کنشگران فرهنگی در کردستان برای برگزار نکردن آیین‌های استقبال از نوروز در بخش صاحب شهر سقز در استان کردستان بیش از ۳۰هزار نفر در این مراسم شرکت کردند. pic.twitter.com/h463wERo82
— ایران وایر (@iranwire) March 15, 2025
For Kurdish communities in particular, Nowruz celebrations often become expressions of cultural resilience.
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.”