Iran's Revolution Day Celebrations Less Than 'Enthusiastic'

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has thanked the people for their “enthusiastic” participation in the revolution day rallies, while evidence suggests otherwise.

Most photos and videos published by government-controlled media on Friday, the main day of celebrations for the 43rd anniversary of the 1979 revolution, showed no sign of hundreds of thousands of people that filled the streets in years past.

It has been common knowledge for Iranians for a long time that the government spends tremendous efforts to ensure a large turnout on revolution day, by forcing tens of thousands of state employees, students, soldiers, and paramilitary personnel to attend street marches. But this year, citing the danger of the Covid pandemic people were encouraged to come out with cars and motorcycles. As a result, participation dwindled.

But government-controlled media and officials praised the “epic” celebration of the revolution, a claim which is vitally important for regime insiders to show that the Islamic Republic is still relevant.

Videos published on social media showed Tehran residents shouting anti-regime slogans from their windows Thursday night, one day before the government-sponsored celebrations.

Critics of the Islamic Republic took this as a sign of the regime’s weakening legitimacy, especially considering last June’s presidential election, which had the lowest turnout in the 43-year history of the clerical government.

Persian social media became abuzz with posts mocking the regime for the sparse crowds at revolution day events, with photos and videos shared to show well-known venues being almost empty.

One Twitter user posted a photo of a crowd gathered to meet an Instagram celebrity in Kerman, next to a photo of a Tehran street on Friday and quipped that the crowd in the small provincial city was larger than the number of marchers in a main Tehran thoroughfare.

Another user tweeted the video of an imported sports car participating in the convoy of cars displaying flags on Friday and said that “Children of clerics are showing off their cars,” and added that they are displaying the fruits of their corruption and thievery.

A man sent a video to US-financed Persian broadcaster Radio Farda showing convoys of cars driving by and saying that regime loyalists are showing their expensive cars while people are hungry and look for food in garbage containers.

Ehsan Sam-Rajabi, an international judo champion tweeted that when he was a young member of the national team, the government bussed them to revolution day rallies to show numbers and that is what they do with all athletes, who are under the control of Revolutionary Guard personnel. Sam-Rajabi emigrated to the United States more than a decade ago and campaigns for athletic freedom as the Islamic Republic bans Iranians to compete against Israelis in sports.