Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi - March 21, 2002

The Margins of the Dominant Ceremonies of the Month of Muharram over the Ancient Nowruz Narrated by Hashemi Rafsanjani and the Messages of the Beginning of the Year of Ayatollah Khamenei and the President and the Meeting with the Wife of the Founder Leader of the Islamic Republic

Full text of the diary:

At the time of the year – at 22:46 minutes and 2 seconds – Fati, Sara, Ali, Saeed and Mohammad Lahouti, [Fati's son-in-law], Faezeh, Hassan, and Mona were present. Mohsen and his family have gone to England to check on Billy Rubin Bala Ehsan, Mehdi, Fereshteh and Fouad to Mecca, and Yasser, Maryam and Leila to Rafsanjan. Because of Muharram, we did not have a plan for Eid. Effat and I gave a brief Eid to the attendees. Television broadcast the program of the delivery of the year as a mixture of religious and artistic programs. The prayer for the delivery of the year was recited by Mr. Mohammad Isfahani, a physician and singer, although he is also religious, but some people have criticized why one of the reciters of the martyrs' families was not used.  

The message of [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] was a short one, and the year 2002 was called the year of "honor and honor of Hosseini" on the occasion of Muharram. Mr. [Seyyed Mohammad] Khatami, [the president], also addressed the threats of the United States in his message.  

On the occasion of Nowruz, a U.S. senator has proposed a resolution to the U.S. House of Representatives to support the Iranian people against the Islamic regime of Iran, and several governors of U.S. states where there are many Iranians have done the same. The proposal of the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to negotiate with Iran's representatives is in the same vein, and after the Supreme Leader's opposition, the US State Department named that representative as Joe Biden. It is clear that by needing Iran, they are trying to remove the obstacles to dominating Iran.  

Today, in Virginia, the police raided the Islamic University and searched it.It was announced that since September 11, 3,000 people have been interrogated in the United States, most of them Muslims, and another 2,500 are scheduled to be interrogated. In West Jerusalem, a Palestinian mujahideen killed eight people and wounded 40 others in a martyrdom operation.  

In Lima, the capital of Peru, near the U.S. Embassy, a massive explosion killed 10 people and injured many more. [U.S. President] George W. Bush is supposed to go to Lima and say he's bored with such operations. I spent most of my time reading, including the statements of 60 American intellectuals justifying the war and the contents of Amir Abdullah's peace plan for Israel and Palestine.  

Today, several groups of relatives came for the spectacular Eid. At night, we went with Effat to visit [Ms. Khadijeh Saqafi], the wife of the Imam, and she is not in a bad mood. Last night and today, we had rain in many parts of Iran.