Nowruz is one of the very ancient events with a long history background connected to the Persian Civilization. The event is named after the Persian king, Jamshed, who is credited for creating the Persian or the Shahenshahi calendar. Based on the legend, Jamshed saved the world from an apocalypse that came in the form of winter and was destined to kill everyone. The event is celebrated throughout Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asian countries.
With the arrival of the festival, a particular segment of religious practitioners has always tried to mark it as a non-Islamic event with controversial content against religion; while, there is not a single verse in the holy book criticizing the event. The event has a very rich historical background with a connection to the Persian Empire Civilization in the region, which is one of the controversial points in Afghanistan. Confronting the event and labeling it as of against religious values has more of political moral rather than of religious, but religious approach to confront the event is the easiest and most effective approach.
The festival is often marked as a national holiday, when families gather to prepare festive dishes and welcome the beginning of spring. This year, with respect to the political development and regime changes, the day is neither celebrated officially nor is marked as public holiday. The event is deemed to be against the Taliban ideology. They have declared that they do not celebrate it officially but have ensured that there is no restriction for civilians to celebrate the event.
Mohammad Moheq, a researcher in religious affairs believes that confrontation of the Nowruz celebration by the ruling militants neither has religious, nor political moral, but the moral behind this confrontation and resistance is ethnical. The narratives that Taliban use for defining religion and religious values are all-baseless and they themselves do not have any strong support for their arguments. The moral is more targeting ethnic identities and removing these historical values from the calendar, by default removes certain values and historical memories for the future generations. Referring to historical notes from religious scholars, Moheq further argue that Nowruz has nothing to do with religion and Islamic communities during Abbasids and rulers of Dailami were celebrating the festival very gloriously.
Mr. Moheq considers the removal of Nowruz from the country’s calendar is nothing more than fueling the enmity by Taliban amongst the country’s residents. Removing Nowruz from the calendar is like removing the history of a great portion of the country’s population that puts a question mark on Taliban’s ideology as of being against the human civilization. He further supports his argument on Taliban’s strategies of targeting ethnic identities by referring to destruction of Buddhas of Bamiyan
“The destruction of Buddha statues, and destruction of other antiquities is a declaration of war on civilizations and cutting off the identity and cultural roots of the people and paving the way for an extremist culture without roots’ He adds. “We are currently witnessing Salafism and Deobandi groups [in Afghanistan].” He further points out that another factor in the intense hostility to Nowruz is the opposition of extremist groups to the joy and happiness of the people.
“When the community feels happy, they [extremists/Taliban] feel that it provides a platform for the community to gain energy, revitalize and unite, and then demand other rights, and in fact, under the pretext of suppressing Nowruz, they are suppressing ethnic groups,” Mr. Moheq said.
He called the ban on Nowruz an authoritarian, extremist and violent act, emphasizing that it would open the door to more violence in Afghanistan.
Dr. Mohammad Amin Ahmadi, a religious scholar and former member of Afghanistan’s Reconciliation and Peace Council, says there is no religious justification behind confrontation to Nowruz. He emphasizes that from an Islamic point of view, there is not valid evidence to indicate that the celebration of Nowruz is an anti-Islamic act, and for this reason, this tradition has existed for centuries among Muslims in Afghanistan, Iran, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and the Kurds.
Mr. Ahmadi states that the existence of several fatwas (religious orders) in some jurisprudential books or possibly several narrations cannot prove that Nowruz is forbidden. According to him, even Shiite Arabs, who do not reconcile with Persian culture, have not considered Nowruz as forbidden, and no fatwa has been issued in this Islamic sect against Nowruz. There is no consensus among the Sunni-Muslims Scholars as well to prove that Nowruz is forbidden.
Mr. Ahmadi says that from an Islamic point of view, according to a well-known Islamic principle, everything is halal, unless there is a strong reason to announce it as “Haram”. According to him, those who claim that Nowruz is forbidden in Islam must have a strong reason – If there is no strong and valid reason, then, imposing restrictions on Nowruz festival celebration is considered an act of heresy.
Ahmadi, the scholar further points out that if someone declares it haram without a valid religious reasoning and without the authority of Ejtihad (the most prominent authority to give order), he has committed heresy/breakdown; Because forbidding an act by an Islamic order without a valid reason is adding a lawsuit to a ruling in the series of Islamic rulings and is subject to the definition of heresy/breakdown.
Imposing restriction and not celebrating this event has no religious motives, but an act of trying to remove certain ethnical values. “We have basically grown up with the idea of Nowruz as the beginning of the year and we consider it a natural thing,” he adds.
“They lack a historical, cultural and civilizational knowledge, they are against culture, art, literature, history and deep empathy with human emotions,” Ahmadi said of the Taliban’s leadership’s view of Nowruz. The rivalry and proxy war being played by Arabian countries and Iran is one of the political reasons for opposing Nowruz. Taliban are the soldiers who have been trained in Pakistani Madrasas whose funding sources are Arabian countries. Iran and Arabian countries are playing their proxy war in Afghanistan and Taliban are the suitable soldiers to play on Arabian side. Afghanistan, like Iran, is also the owner of a common civilization, history and culture, and the celebration of Nowruz is one part of it.
He called on the media, cultural institutions and all people to celebrate Nowruz in cyberspace in harmony with each other, to express their joy, and to urged international organizations such as the United Nations and UNESCO and their affiliated institutions to support the common cultural heritage in Afghanistan.
Bashir Ahmad Ansari, another religious scholar, says opposing to Nowruz festival celebration is declining every day. “A few years ago, the boycott of Nowruz in religious gatherings and meetings was considered a jurisprudential fact, but today it is viewed as part of the cultural history with no connection with a religion.”
Mr. Ansari further states that some caliphs forbade official Nowruz celebrations due the economical reasons, but this was later promoted again with the arrival of Mu’awiyah, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. He points out that in the history, Muslims have not encountered a period in which the military and government have called Nowruz an anti-religious occasion. The fatwas that have been translated from the distant past in connection with Nowruz are mostly of a jurisprudential nature and have been uttered by scholars. “Nowruz has nothing to do with religion. It has more of historical dimensions that need to be further explored.” He adds.
He adds that the jurisprudential centers of the Arabian Peninsula and its extension in our country through their soldiers such as Taliban are trying to translate these historical occasions of ours as imported products by Iran; while, they are not aware that this is our history and we will recall it by any means possible. Politicization of identities and identity symbols is a crime committed against human beings and human culture and he urges Taliban to cope with realities of time. By imposing restrictions on such events and occasions’ celebration, Taliban cannot demolish the historical civilization; in contrast, they make the occasions even more sensitive and provoke the people against them.
Mr. Ansari says that Nowruz is celebrated by all Aryan tribes and their neighbors. But today, he said, intellectuals who attribute themselves to different ethnic groups and do not know their own history feel alienated on the occasion.
In an answer to a question on “Sanctity of Nowruz,” he states that in all the jurisprudential and doctrinal heritages of Islam, there is no clear text and “definitive proof” that proves the sanctity of Nowruz. However, the boycott has its own rules, and only God and the prophets have the authority to call something lawful or unlawful.
Finally, researches and arguments with very strong religious based evident and sources prove that the argument made by Taliban to ban on certain occasions and events in the country has political motives not religious motives and support.
[highlight color=”gray”]Hasht-e Subh Persian[/highlight]