Ansar Hezbollah Protests Football During Muharram: 'Opposition Representation at the Expense of the Regime'

The gathering and efforts of the Ansar Hezbollah group to cancel the football match between Iran and South Korea have caught the attention of several newspapers on Saturday. Shargh newspaper reported that "the protest gathering of Ansar Hezbollah regarding the football match between Iran and South Korea took place on Friday after Friday prayers in Tehran, with the attendance of about 50 people in Palestine Square." According to this newspaper, Hossein Allahkaram, one of the leaders of Ansar Hezbollah, in a statement read during the gathering, called for the cancellation of the Iran-South Korea match, but said that now that the officials "want to hold this match and say that if it is not held, we will face three consecutive losses and ultimately be eliminated from the World Cup, any potential disrespect to Ashura during this match is unacceptable to anyone. If such an incident occurs during the football match on the night of Ashura, the heads of the three branches of government must be held accountable and should resign and be dismissed due to their failure to prevent and heed the proposals made by Hezbollah." Shargh also reported that this figure from Ansar Hezbollah stated that "some officials, due to mistakes in timing or lack of necessary foresight after the draw of the World Cup qualifiers, have potentially set the stage for disrespecting the day of Tasu'a and the night of Ashura coinciding with the Iran-South Korea football match, so God forbid, the disrespectful actions of the seditionists of Ashura in 2009 are repeated again." According to Shargh, the negative reaction to the Iran-South Korea match was also reflected in the Friday prayer sermons, where in Tehran, Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani emphasized that "if a football match is to be held on the night of Ashura, be careful that the atmosphere of the match must be 100% Ashura-like and Karbala-like, the walls and ceilings must be draped in black, the entire space must be black-clad, and the cry of 'Ya Hussein' must continuously rise from the crowd. Instead of the cheers that are usually heard in these matches, everyone should shout 'Ya Hussein'." The Shahrvand newspaper also assessed this gathering as "Ansar Hezbollah's attempt to cancel the Iran-South Korea match," while the Hamdeli newspaper described it on its front page as "the return of Ansar Hezbollah with a new demand," stating that on Friday, "although they appeared in smaller numbers than before, they had a demand beyond their previous requests, and Hossein Allahkaram, the leader of this group, said that if the Iran-South Korea football match is held and there is disrespect from the spectators on the day of Tasu'a, the heads of the three branches must be dismissed." This newspaper noted that "the Ansar Hezbollah group has caused controversy in the media space of the country in recent months," stating that members of this group "appeared on the street on Friday organized by Hossein Allahkaram and expressed their disgust regarding the holding of the Iran-South Korea match on the day of Tasu'a while presenting their demands." According to this newspaper, the protesters chanted slogans including: "Verbal admonition is an obligation of Muslims, the path of our martyrs is this, this is it," "Enjoining good is our greatest jihad," "Hezbollah is awake, it is disgusted by the unveiled," "The leader's command must be executed," "Hussein Hussein is our slogan, martyrdom is our pride," "We are not the people of Kufa, let Ali be left alone." Hamdeli also reported that Mansour Arzi, a eulogist close to the principlist faction, during a eulogy at the Arg Mosque in Tehran, stated: "They want to attract the youth on the night of Tasu'a, leave the battlefield of Karbala and come to the game field. There are many plots, you people must wake up. If each of you protests, they will slowly understand. They are looking for a confrontation; if Hezbollah gets angry, it will destroy them all." Fazlollah Yari, in an editorial for Hamdeli titled "Opposition Representation at the Expense of the Regime," referred to the Ansar Hezbollah gathering and noted that "in recent days, some mid-level and high-ranking clerics have insisted that the government should cancel the Iran-South Korea match without regard to its international commitments." He wrote: "The protesters' reference to the potential joy of the youth in the event of Iran's victory in this match is noteworthy," and even "the Coalition Party issued a ridiculous statement demanding that if the match is held, television should refrain from broadcasting offensive images of goals and should not provoke the emotions and joy of the people." The editorial writer emphasized that in the days leading up to the Iran-South Korea football match, which coincides with "the night of Tasu'a," movements by some of these groups are likely to intensify, stating: "Some of these groups and individuals consider themselves above the regime as a whole and derive their legitimacy from their association with 'Islam,' but sometimes they forget that the Islam they advocate took on a practical form in the framework of the Islamic Republic nearly four decades ago." The Hamdeli newspaper also noted that these groups "have previously shown that they do not value national interests at all," and now "the supervisory bodies must eliminate the suspicion that a group using the name of the regime and utilizing the regime's resources is creating costs for the regime and has a base within the regime." The Etemad newspaper also discussed in its editorial the "understanding the reasons for opposing the holding of football on Tasu'a," recalling that nearly twenty years ago during Mohammad Yazdi's presidency over the judiciary, a similar match between Tehran's Esteghlal team and a Chinese team was held simultaneously with "Ashura" in Tehran, but he did not oppose it, whereas now he is calling for the cancellation of the Iran-South Korea match, which is scheduled by FIFA. This newspaper emphasized that "assuming Iran scores a goal and there is joy, what does this have to do with the mourning of Imam Hussein? Do mourners not smile or face happy events during mourning days? While they are also in mourning." The Arman newspaper in its Saturday issue emphasized that "the sale of newborns has reached a warning threshold" and reported on the "auction of triplets in Arak," stating: "While citizens are still in shock from various reports about the buying and selling of newborns and children in Tehran, this time a report has emerged that three triplets in Arak have been put up for auction." This newspaper quoted Fatemeh Yazdanpour, a social worker at the Mehrafarin Charity, stating: "A week ago, Mojgan went to a hospital in Arak to give birth. Because she could not afford the hospital costs, she was referred to the Mehrafarin Charity by the hospital's social workers," but "when we encountered Mojgan, she stated that her husband intended to sell the triplets." This social worker identified Mojgan, the mother of the triplets, as a 33-year-old woman and stated: "Due to the mother's special conditions, the triplets were born 40 days earlier than expected and therefore needed to be kept in a device," but "the day the triplets were born, 'Saeed,' the father of the three newborns, met a woman who introduced herself as a retired employee of one of the government agencies, and due to the father's motivation to sell his newborns, the discussion of selling them arose. Initially, he set a price of 40 million tomans for each of them, but after much bargaining, he agreed to sell each of his children for 20 million tomans." The Arman newspaper reported that these triplets are named Sara, Nika, and Khorshid, and "the mother of the newborns revealed the issue of selling the triplets, and we also realized that the father intended to hand over his children to a woman to head to Tehran." This newspaper emphasized that "the problem of buying and selling newborns is not a new issue, but in recent years, with the media coverage of cases, sensitivity on this topic has increased. Poverty and the struggles of parents caught in social harms are among the main reasons for the sale of newborns." Kourosh Mohammadi, the head of the Iranian Social Pathology Association, also stated that "the sale of newborns is one of the issues that questions the dignity of individuals and society," telling the Arman newspaper: "It is believed that in recent decades issues such as poverty, unemployment, the rise of prostitution, and serious problems in marriage have led to a significant increase in the number of orphaned and abandoned children, but "since the arrival of addicts and opportunists, the issue of buying and selling newborns has emerged and a market for this has opened in society, to the extent that we now witness the buying and selling of newborns across the country, especially in large cities." The Jahan San'at newspaper on its front page titled "Coin on the Slippery Slope" wrote: "The increase in the value of the US dollar has led to a downward trend in global gold prices over the past nine days, and on the other hand, it has caused a collective unprecedented drop in the prices of gold and coins in the domestic market over the past seven months, such that the market for various coins experienced price drops of up to 28 thousand tomans per coin last week, marking the first severe fluctuation recorded in this market in recent months." The Aftab Yazd newspaper reported on "a series of strange incidents in Behesht Zahra" regarding "the defacement and theft of gravestones" of celebrities and athletes. Simultaneously, the Shahrvand newspaper reported that in the incident of the destruction and theft of gravestones of figures, it was another beloved poet in Iran who was affected, and while "the previous gravestone of Sohrab Sepehri is missing," the new stone also "has no image" of this poet. This newspaper quoted the head of the Cultural and Artistic Administration of Kashan regarding "what has happened to Sohrab Sepehri's gravestone" stating: "During the repairs of the shrine and the expansion of the area, the gravestone adorned with the handwriting of Reza Mafi was broken and lost; currently, a gravestone similar to the original gravestone prepared in the handwriting of Reza Mafi is to be installed on Sohrab's grave." According to this newspaper, Mostafa Javadi-Moghadam regarding the removal of Sohrab Sepehri's photo from his gravestone also stated: "Whether or not a photo is on the gravestone depends on individual taste; however, I believe that there should not be a photo on the gravestone, and we prefer to install a gravestone similar to the original gravestone on Sohrab's grave." The head of the Cultural and Artistic Administration of Kashan also mentioned the possibility of relocating Sohrab Sepehri's tomb if the family of this poet agrees, stating: "Unfortunately, although Sohrab is one of our national treasures with global fame, he is subject to issues that some of them are of a narrow-minded nature, and I believe that if these controversies are to end forever, the solution is the same action that was taken for Nima Yushij." The Iran newspaper, while publishing photos of Hassan Rouhani meeting with the leaders of Malaysia and Vietnam, evaluated the trip of the eleventh government as the beginning of "the spring of Iran's relations with Southeast Asia in the post-JCPOA era," stating that Hassan Rouhani, after his trip to Vietnam, arrived in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, on Saturday evening and will then "head to Thailand to participate in the 'Asian Dialogue' meeting." The Javan newspaper, close to the Revolutionary Guards, also welcomed Hassan Rouhani's trip to East Asia, evaluating it as "a post-JCPOA look towards the East after the West's breach of promise." This newspaper wrote: Hassan Rouhani "is heading to Southeast Asia to mitigate the pressure of the West's breach of promise on Iran's economy by expanding trade relations with industrial countries in East Asia and to find new markets for Iranian products." "On the Other Side of Words and Sound" is the title of two pages attached to the Iran newspaper on the occasion of "the seventy-seventh birthday of Mohammad-Reza Shafiei Kadkani," published in Saturday's issue of this newspaper. The Etemad newspaper dedicated its front-page photo to "Hakan Tekin," the Turkish ambassador to Iran. The Turkish ambassador stated that "we have offered to help improve relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia," telling this newspaper: "Our president made efforts to resolve this crisis during separate bilateral meetings in April with the Saudi king and President Rouhani, both of whom came to Turkey to attend the Islamic Cooperation Organization meeting. Although there is still much tension and both countries have unpleasant feelings towards each other, Turkey is always willing to assist in improving relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia and has conveyed this message at very high levels as well."