After 20 years of holding the event, the Qadr Nights ceremony (the 19th, 21st, and 23rd nights of Ramadan) in the Imam Khomeini shrine was finally canceled today following strong controversy over the last few days.
First, it was announced that the ceremony would not be aired live on national TV as it had in previous years because of the presence of Hojatu-al-islam Nategh Noori and former President Khatami as the prayers leaders along with the possible attendance of Karroubi and Mousavi. The IRIB was expected to replace live programming from Imam Khomeini with a live program from Imam Sadegh University, Abdul-Azim holy shrine or Mahdieh religious site in Tehran. But, according to Tabnak (pro-Mohsen Rezaei website news), Seyyed Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini who is the director of the Khomeini’s shrine issued a letter on Friday informing that the ceremony was canceled. According to Emruz (Reformist website news), Seyyed Hassan Khomeini has been under government’s pressure to cancel this important annual event because of this year’s presence of the Hojatu-al-islams Nategh Noori (former speaker of Majlis) , Khatami (former president), Rohani (former secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council) who have supported the reformists during disputed 12 June election.
To many, the move was a sign of the government’s distress amid the highly charged political atmosphere that still lingers throughout Iran. For the Islamic Republic of Iran to order that a Ramadan ceremony be canceled would be akin to the Pope canceling Ash Wednesday mass–it has to be a sign of deep troubles.
September 4, 2009