The year, to be named for “Anahita, the Iranian goddess.”

Pasargad Heritage Foundation chooses and suggests a name for the upcoming year, as per annual tradition, on the eve of the biggest and most important Eid and celebration for Iranians.

This choice, as always, has been within the framework of the preservation and protection of cultural and historical heritage and for our national and global treasures. The legacies that remain at times in the shadows due to neglect and ignorance, and which can be, like in the past few decades, in danger of destruction due to cultural discrimination and anti-Iranism.

One of these legacies has been the personalities or myths and symbols that have had an important impact on the history of our land and human societies, due to their exceptionality in the scientific, literary, and cultural fields, and which can be included in the National Heritage List or UNESCO’s Memory of the World as well.

Accordingly, the Pasargad Heritage Foundation, on the eve of this solar year 1403, calls the new year the year of “Anahita, the Iranian Goddess,” so as to familiarize Iranians with this mythical symbol, and to raise awareness among friends of Iran and the world of intentional and unintentional destruction. In recent years, the fire temples and other temples of Anahita have attracted much attention.

Anahita is a female deity, known in Iranian and by non-Iranian myths as a woman who symbolizes power, purity, and guardianship of rain and waters. The goddess has been a symbol of a brilliant cultural period in the history of Iran. She is a lady praised by both the god of wisdom Ahura Mazda, by Zoroaster, the great sage, and by the people of Iran, men and women, who were in such a position that even the female deity was approachable to them.

In this way, by naming the Iranian year 1403 as that of Anahita, the Pasargad Heritage Foundation calls for the help of all friends of culture so that we can prevent the continued destruction of Anahita’s temples by utilizing international laws for the preservation of historical monuments.

Let us start our Iranian New Year, the beautiful global Nowruz, and the coming year with the name of a woman, a solar symbol for a large part of our culture and history, and a divine symbol that commanded the waters to cleanse the ugliness and pollution from our land.

A Happy Nowruz and Iranian New Year to everyone.