Tehran to Name Street after Sheikh Nimr; Embassy Street Name Remains Unchanged

The chairman of a committee in charge of naming streets in Tehran’s City Council says they have received a letter from the Foreign Ministry to maintain the name of Boostan St., where the Saudi embassy is located.

Angry protesters enraged by Saudi Arabia’s execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran last week. “Some proposed changing the name of the street to Sheikh Nimr,” Mojtaba Shakeri told ISNA, saying many people and figures have asked the council to react to al-Nimr’s martyrdom by naming a street after him.

Last Sunday, some Council members had already proposed naming a street after the executed Shiite cleric. “The double-urgency of the plan was passed in the City Council and investigations to name a street after Sheikh al-Nimr have begun, but on the same afternoon people, who had gathered in front of the Saudi embassy, changed the street name spontaneously,” Shakeri said.

The naming committee chairman says the City Council corresponds with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on naming city streets after international figures. “It is not in the bylaw that the MFA should be asked before naming a street after a non-Iranian but our procedure is to ask the ministry’s opinion on the matter,” he added.

“The City Council has received a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which asks city authorities to recognize the city with its previous name, Boostan,” he told ISNA.

Protesters last week changed the street nameplate with one inscribed with Sheikh al-Nimr’s name. “They made the plate themselves. It is not difficult to make a resembling plate but the plate installed on Sunday is different from those installed by City Hall,” the chairman said.

Although the double-urgency for naming a street after the prominent Shiite cleric has been ratified, the committee is investigating streets to pick one. “The street-naming process takes from two weeks to a whole month,” Shakeri said.