In an Instagram video, a Persian protester goes out on the streets of Los Angeles to shout his praise for the U.S. government for killing Ayatollah Khamenei and bringing hope of liberation to the people of Iran. Across the street are American liberals with banners that read “Hands Off Iran.” He confronts them, furious not only that people who never suffered under the regime want it preserved, but also about the flag they are waving.
He holds the original Persian flag, the Lion and Sun, which has become the symbol of the anti-regime movement. The “Hands Off” protesters are waving the Islamic Republic’s flag, which bears Arabic rather than Persian writing. When he points this out, the liberals tell him he is wrong.
Before the revolution, Iran’s flag centered on the Lion and Sun emblem, traceable thousands of years to before the Achaemenid era. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the flag was changed on July 29, 1980. The Lion and Sun was replaced with a stylized rendering of the Arabic word “Allah,” and the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar” was added 22 times in Kufic script along the edges of the green and red bands.
The Persian word for God is “Khoda” or “Parwardigār.” One Iranian commentator noted that Iran is the only country in the world with a flag containing a language other than its own official language. Critics argue the post-revolutionary flag deliberately marginalizes Iran’s pre-Islamic heritage, and its Islamic symbols have raised questions about inclusivity for Iran’s non-Muslim minorities: Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians.
After 1979, the Lion and Sun was strictly banned from public use inside Iran. Yet a 2022 survey found that 46% of respondents inside Iran preferred it as their national flag, compared to only 30% who chose the Islamic Republic’s flag.