Source The New York Times: Ashura, which mourns the killing of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson and celebrates Shiite identity, has long symbolized the fight against oppression. This year, its chants have been turned against the Regime.

The mourners who gathered in Yazd ( a city in centre of Iran) last month and in many other cities across Iran diverged unexpectedly from the script to target the clerical rulers of Iran, turning religious ballads into protest songs about the suffering of Iranians. “For a city in ruins, for all of us held hostage, for the grieving mothers, for the tears of the marginalized,” the men sang, according to videos. “We are mourning thousands of innocent lives, we are ashamed of this raging fire. Oh rain, oh storm, come. They have set fire to our tent.”

And in Dezful, a small conservative city in the southwest, a similar vocalist delivered a scathing sermon against the government as the crowd marched in a ritual procession.

“Oh, my country, do you know why I’m grieving? Their only concern is hijab. They don’t see the blood, the poverty. They are stealing the public’s money,” “Fathers are ashamed, mothers are suffering. I wish they would see our poverty.”

Instead of the traditional chant that describes an ancient tale of grief, the crowd shouted back: “Iran, Iran, Iran!”