Tehran, Iran. Iranian authorities are displaying propaganda posters across Tehran portraying national unity and victory over a global superpower while staging public events focused on military themes. Analysts say the messaging shift comes as economic pain deepens and the government intensifies repression months after crushing protests.
Posters and public events
Posters in Tehran feature images of Revolutionary Guardsmen and a blockaded Strait of Hormuz, alongside claims of national unity and victory. Authorities are also holding military-themed mass weddings and public gun training sessions in mosques to promote what they describe as a spirit of national resistance.
Shift from revolutionary religious messaging
Unlike past revolutionary religious messaging, current propaganda places greater emphasis on nationalist themes aimed beyond a hardline support base. Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, said the Islamic Republic’s earlier ideology no longer had much traction in society, prompting a turn to other elements of Iranian identity to mobilize people.
Questions over public reception
Vaez and other analysts said it is debatable how much success the messaging will have among a deeply disillusioned population.
External pressure and internal strain
The article says Iran has withstood U.S. and Israeli airstrikes and brought U.S. President Donald Trump back to the negotiating table by closing the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil supply route. It adds that Iran faces a dire internal situation, with an economy that risks disintegration and a growing campaign of repression indicating authorities’ fear of renewed unrest.
Symbols and state media portrayal
The authorities are still using established motifs of national resistance and Western villainy while downplaying some older revolutionary imagery. Shi’ite Muslim martyrdom iconography has partly given way to Persian national and historical symbols that were previously disdained in the Islamic Republic as evoking a monarchist past. State television coverage of frequent rallies has also included interviews with women without headscarves, which the article says had long been unshowable in Iranian media.
How do you think Iran’s shift toward nationalist symbolism will affect public support during wartime?