Tonight’s homework for students in Iran

Student: Sir, can I! Who devoted their lives to keep the flames burning?

Students: The teacher is here!

Teacher: Sit down, my dear kids.

Kids, which of you know what the meaning of fire is, and why do we celebrate the Fire Festivities every year and start little fires everywhere?

Student: Sir, can I say! My mom and dad say they don’t know the reason. They say it just has to be and we have always liked it. But can you tell us more?

Teacher: Yes, of course. The flames of our Fire Festivities are good teachers to us! They have a lot of things to teach us. Like bravery! Flames burst into the air. They have both heat and light! Fire pulls our cold hands out of our pockets. It warms our cold breaths. It brings hope to those who have lost hope. Fire takes on the night and burns all darkness.

One can see many other things in this fire.

The heart of a grieving mother and father who lost their child in the 2009 uprising, and the determined faces of the martyrs of freedom. And the youths who are now fed up with this regime.

My dear kids, the fire of Fire Festivities has the ashes of thirty some years of the ruling mullahs’ cruelty. As the fire burns, the feelings of fear and surrender all burn, and it is bravery and courage that comes to life. It is the fire of resistance that shows itself and defeats the night, and pushes it out of our city.

The fire of our resistance is more than a century old. From the days that those who have loved this land set everything aside and gave their all to keep this flame burning.

Student: Sir, can I! Who devoted their lives to keep the flames burning?

Teacher: Those who stood against the mullahs! They are not afraid of anything. They are fires upon the mullahs’ rule in Iran!! This fire will not be defeated! We, too, have a role to play in keeping this flame burning.

In the Fire Festivities one spark can be a cry, chanting death to dictator, down with Khamenei and down with the mullahs’ rule.

Student; Sir, can I! Isn’t this the same thing they chant in demonstrations?

Teacher: Yes, my dear, like every year, Iranian youths have kept a special place for these slogans amongst the flames of the Fire Festivities and the sounds of firecrackers and sound grenades. The bond of these sounds and chants on the night of the Fire Festivities is the climax of our youth’s anger. An explosion that has terrified the mullahs.

Teacher: My dear little ones, I am coming, too. Your homework tonight is to lit large fires, as big as you can, to tremble the pillars of this regime. So let’s go together!

Class is over now and we will go and get ready to light up the fires of hope. Everyone will be in the street and as night falls we will get ready. We will be read to light fires and not allow the night to get a hold of everything. The dark night of this ruling regime must be defeated by the heat and flames of the fire of our will. No one can be absent in this lesson.