Persian people held their New Year celebrations last week welcoming the Spring which marks the change of the season and the beginning of life after a long and cold winter.  This celebration is held across Iran and many other Asian countries according to their own traditions and customs.
In the Kurdish region, similar to many other part of Iran, men and women take part in singing and dancing their traditional customs.
At this ceremony held on Saturday, March 19 in a village named “Ghasriyan” near the town of Sene, western Iran, security agents and State forces raided the ceremony after the event and arrested a number of women who had taken part in the New Year celebrations. They also summoned a number of others later.
Plainclothes agents were stationed in large numbers around the village, an informed source said. To this day only Sara Mirani and Ladan Sohrabi have been identified as amongst those arrested.
Security forces insulted a number of the people wearing Kurdish clothing, this source added. Security forces then attacked a number of people with batons and splashing acid. Shahla Vakili, the sister of executed Kurdish political prisoner Farhad Vakili, was summoned to the Sene Intelligence Department and arrested.

(NCRI Women’s Committee – March 19, 2016)