Kurdistan political and civil activists demand release of Nowruz detainees

A number of political, civil, and cultural activists in Kurdistan issued a statement calling for the release of those detained during the Nowruz ceremony in Sanandaj.

In the statement, which was published on Thursday, April 24, the activists called the arrests of participants in the Nowruz ceremony "inappropriate and unlawful actions against the principles and fundamental human rights," which "turned the joy of the families of the detainees into sadness and worry in the first days of the year, and created a wave of concern in Sanandaj and other cities."

The statement continued by emphasizing the need to "change the approach towards human cultural rights and remove formal and informal restrictions," calling on the authorities to release the detained individuals.

Since the beginning of 1401 (2022), a number of citizens of Kurdish-populated areas of Iran have been arrested for participating in Nowruz ceremonies. No exact statistics on these arrests have been published yet, but according to reports, children and the elderly have also been among those arrested, and the arrests are still ongoing.

According to reports, ceremonies in some Kurdish-populated areas, including Osnaviyeh in West Azerbaijan, turned violent with the presence of special forces, who used tear gas and shotgun pellets to disperse the crowd.

In the days before the start of the New Year, human rights news sites reported that the intelligence departments of various Kurdish cities had summoned dozens of citizens from these areas and obtained written commitments to prevent them from attending Nowruz ceremonies.

According to this report, in the weeks before the start of the New Year, the district and governorate administrations had issued a notification to the executive authorities of Kurdish cities, prohibiting the holding of Nowruz ceremonies in Kurdistan, the use of the Kurdish flag, robes, red flowers, mixed dancing and marching of men and women, and had emphasized the use of symbols of the Iranian government in New Year ceremonies.

Source: Radio Farda