Iranians Relish TV Movie Scene Depicting Attack On Clerics

A scene from a TV series has been shared extensively by social media users in Iran as it depicts clerics being attacked by security forces several decades ago.

Broadcast on Iran’s state TV, “Motherland” (“Sarzamin-e Madari” in Persian) covers the sociopolitical history of Iran over a time span of 37 years, from 1942 to the birth of the Islamic Republic in 1979, according to the ruling regime's ideological prism.

In one scene, which is apparently aimed at promoting an oppressed picture of clerics during the reign of Pahlavi monarchs in the 20th century, security forces are shown to be shooting and killing clergymen.

The scene has gone viral recently on X and Instagram as Iranian users have remixed it with happy, celebratory and heroic songs in what can be interpreted as an explicit gesture of opposition to the theocratic government in the country.

The series has been directed by Kamal Tabrizi, the famous Iranian filmmaker, who was involved in the notorious attack against the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

In October, Fars news agency, affiliated with the IRGC, hailed the series as “the narrator of the ups and downs of the history of Iran in the contemporary era.”

Iranians have time and again demonstrated their protests against clerics who are regarded by many in the country as the driving force behind the Islamic Republic’s restrictive social policies, oppression and executions.

Flipping turbans of the clergy turned into a popular manifestation of protests in Iran during the nationwide uprising triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022. The action was profoundly worrisome for the Islamic Republic’s authorities as well as Muslim clerics abroad.