Iran International
The screening of a concert video by a Lebanese female singer at a pro-government rally in Iran has drawn unusual attention for appearing to cross two of the Islamic Republic’s long-standing cultural taboos: women’s solo singing and compulsory hijab.
The video featured Julia Boutros, a Christian artist widely known across the Arab world for songs supporting Lebanese and Palestinian “resistance” movements.
In the footage shown on a large screen before a mixed-gender audience, she appeared without a headscarf.
For nearly half a century, broadcasting a female singer’s solo voice to male audiences has been prohibited in Iran. Women who have challenged this restriction, even in private concerts or online, have often faced harsh repercussions.
The public screening of Boutros’s performance at an officially sanctioned gathering therefore represents a striking departure from established norms, even if it may have occurred unintentionally.
Events like the rally typically require official permits, suggesting at least tacit approval by local authorities. Yet judicial bodies, which have historically acted quickly against perceived breaches of cultural or religious codes, have so far issued no public criticism of the incident.
Rallies evolving after ceasefire
The episode comes as the character of pro-government gatherings has been changing since the ceasefire that ended weeks of fighting nearly two weeks ago.
Social media posts increasingly depict the rallies as taking on a festival-like atmosphere. Families attend together, and for some participants the events appear to function as social gatherings as much as political demonstrations.
Large banners, video screens and coordinated staging are now common, while mosques and local Basij militia bases often serve as assembly points before crowds move toward central gathering locations.
These developments have also generated complaints from residents about late-night noise and traffic congestion, concerns widely discussed on social media.
Incentives and organization
There are also claims—difficult to independently verify—that participants are being mobilized through local institutions and offered incentives such as food, snacks or other benefits.
Photographs circulating online show numerous tents distributing free food and drinks, a practice consistent with the Shia tradition of nazri, in which charitable offerings are made during religious gatherings.
Images from recent days also showed senior military figure General Habibollah Sayyari helping prepare and distribute food at one such tent, highlighting the visible presence of state institutions at the events.
Pro-government celebrities from the film and sports worlds have also attended, with state media giving extensive coverage to their participation.
Political messaging intensifies
Hardline political groups have used the rallies as platforms for speeches and mobilization, with invited speakers addressing contentious issues such as whether Iran should accept ceasefire terms or pursue negotiations with the United States.
Some speeches have targeted prominent political figures, including former President Hassan Rouhani, former foreign minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, encouraging crowds to chant slogans against them.
In one instance, a live broadcast of a speech by a religious performer was abruptly cut by state television and replaced with pre-recorded programming, suggesting heightened sensitivity to the messages being aired.
The rallies themselves were initially encouraged by senior officials as a demonstration of wartime solidarity. Earlier in the conflict, Ghalibaf called on citizens to take to the streets in support of Iran’s armed forces.
Yet the appearance of Boutros’s unveiled image on a giant screen at a pro-government gathering has underscored the contradictions between Tehran’s cultural restrictions and the messaging it seeks to project.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.