The Islamic Republic of Iran's Mehr news agency blasted a decoration in a mall in northern Tehran because it allegedly combined symbols of the Persian Yalda celebration with Sukkot.
Writing for Mehr News, which is owned by the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization, Fatima Karimi lashed out at the mall for "promoting a Jewish holiday," according to Iran International.
The London-based Iran International wrote that Mehr News "has criticized decoration of a mall in northern Tehran which it says has combined symbols of the Persian feast of Yalda Night with those of Sukkot observed by Jews."
Yalda is an Iranian festival that takes place on the longest day of the year and celebrates the winter solstice. The Jerusalem Post reviewed the Persian-language article on the Mehr News website, with its blaring outraged headline about its alleged combination of Yalda with Sukkot.
The Mehr News journalist wrote that "at the bottom floor of this passage is a small decoration with which many people take souvenir photos, but how many of them know that this decor is a combination of the Yalda celebration and Jewish...celebration!" The issues that prompted the Mehr News reporter's outrage appear to be her perception that "The roof and the accompaniment below it are reminiscent of the Sukkot... held by the Jews."
Karimi writes that "Although in our country, Iran, the freedom of official religions is accepted and people of different religions live together, combining one Iranian celebration with another in decor can only distort it. Especially since various influencers also go to this place and advertise it without knowing it."
The US government classified Iran's regime as the leading state-sponsor of terrorism and antisemitism. The clerical regime executed Habib Elghanian, the former leader of the Jewish community in Iran, in 1979. The overwhelming majority of Iran's pre-1979 revolution population of 80,000 fled the Islamic Republic due to repression. Iranian Jews estimate there are less than 10,000 Persian Jews in the Islamic Republic.
Writing in The Forward in 2020, the Iranian-American journalist Karmel Melamed noted that "the Iranian regime since day one has effectively turned the Jews and other religious minorities in Iran into third-class citizens with radical laws that convey inferior status to Jews and other religious minorities, who are unequal before the law."