THIS YEAR, MANY Iranians marked the Persian New Year, Nowruz, a tradition that has been celebrated for more than 3,000 years, with heavy hearts. Nowruz is meant to be a time of renewal, light, family and hope.

Families in normal times will gather around the Haft-Seen table, children wear new clothes, elders are visited, and people try to forgive the past and begin again.

It is a celebration that has survived empires, invasions, revolutions and centuries of change. It is older than many of the modern nations that exist today.

But this year, many Haft-Seen tables had empty chairs.

Madrid, 20 March. Iranians marked the Persian New Year as their loved ones endure oppression and war in Iran. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Empty chairs for sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and friends who are no longer alive. For mothers and fathers whose lives were taken, and for the innocent children who must now grow up without them.

Some were executed. Some were killed in protests. Some died in prison. Some disappeared and never came home. In the days leading up to the New Year, and even in the first days of Nowruz itself, reports emerged of the execution of three young athletes.

They were accused of being “enemies of God”, forced to confess and executed just as the new year began, at a time when families are supposed to come together and start again.

For many families, the new year did not begin with celebration, but with a visit to a grave.

Cut off from loved ones

At the same time, for the past few weeks, internet access inside Iran has been severely restricted and, in many places, completely cut off. Families outside Iran have struggled to contact their loved ones.

Phone calls, when they go through at all, last one or two minutes before the line goes dead. Messages arrive hours late, or not at all. Many people outside Iran do not know if their parents, siblings, or friends are safe.

When a country goes dark like this, two realities are created: the reality inside the country, and the one presented to the outside world.

Inside Iran, people........

© TheJournal