New Year celebrations are always the time for joy and family gathering. In Iran it is customary and part of the tradition to put away everything old and reach out for all that is new, to forget all the agonies and sufferings of past year, and instead wish for and be hopeful of happiness and joys of the coming year.
But it all has one exception, for those who live under repressive governments. A political prisoner or a prisoner of conscious in Iran who has been put away for his beliefs is that exception. He who has to suffer away from his loved ones behind bars during the time of joy.
Thus, a contemporary Iranian poet, M Showq has written the following poem.

How many years can a mother embrace the fantasy of his son from behind the wall?
How many years can a prisoner say “happy Nowrouz” through a call?
How many New Year Eve must come and go without happiness
How many tears should be shed like rain in the fall?
This is the story of all Iranian political prisoner
The story of a nation that lives under the tyranny’s pall