Millions of people around the world have celebrated the start of the Persian New Year. The Nowruz festival falls annually on March 20 or 21, when day and night are of equal length. According to the Iranian and Afghan calendar, the year 1403 now begins. Nowruz is celebrated in Central, West and South Asia, for example in Iran, Afghanistan and the Kurdish regions, but also by millions of people around the world. In Iran, this year’s festival is being overshadowed by a severe economic crisis. In Afghanistan, there have been no public festivals since the Taliban took power again in August 2021. Al…