TEHRAN, Iran: The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times reported on Monday September 7 that Iranian officials have canceled or downgraded major Shiite religious events during the holy month of Ramadan, suggesting fear that the opposition might use them to stage protests.

Death anniversary of Omm Al-Mominin Hazret-e-Khadija (AS) on Ramadan 10, birth anniversary of Imam Hasan Al-Mojtaba (AS) on Ramadan 15, three shab-haye-Qadr (Ramadan 19, 21, 23), shab-i-dharbah and martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ali (AS) (Ramadan 19, 21) and Joma-tol Wedaa (last Friday of Ramadan) are the events that fall in this holy month.

According to the report a massive evening celebration scheduled for next weekend at the South Tehran mausoleum of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was canceled "due to problems," the site's public relations department said in a statement.

A traditional speech by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, marking the end of Ramadan, meanwhile, was changed from a large venue to one that is much smaller, the Ettemaad newspaper, which is critical of the government, reported Sunday.

And in Qom, the nation's center for religious education, several famous clerics who silently support the opposition were told they had been barred from speaking at an event Wednesday in the city's most important shrine of Hazret Fatimeh Masumeh (AS), the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported.

Although there have been no mass demonstrations since July, the cancellations and venue changes show that Iranian leaders are still worried about protests by followers of the defeated presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.