Iran International
Tehran's city council has dropped plans to rename Bisotun Street after former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, following widespread protests from citizens who emphasized the deep historical and cultural significance of the street's name.
Mehdi Chamran, chairman of the Tehran City Council, confirmed on Sunday that the council is now looking for an alternative location to honor the assassinated Hamas leader, killed by Israel amid the war in Gaza in October, with a street name.
The proposal to rename a section of Bisotun Street in central Tehran was introduced last week by councilor Narges Madanipour.
Her proposal was approved by other councilors, most of whom are ultra-hardliners supporting the Iran-backed Palestinian group, Hamas, which countries such as the UK and US designate a terrorist group.
The section in question is between a street named after the lead of Iran's other Palestinian military ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Fathi Shaqaqi, and a nearby square called Jihad.
The City Council’s decision sparked an outcry from thousands of citizens, activists, and politicians who took to social media to voice their opposition. A petition was quickly launched, protesting what many perceived as an attempt to erase an important part of Iran’s heritage and identity.
Cultural Significance of Bisotun
Bisotun is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in western Iran and features an enormous bas-relief and nearly 1,200 lines of multilingual inscriptions by Darius the Great, the Persian king who ruled from 522 to 486 BCE.
The inscriptions, carved into Mount Bisotun, are some of the most significant archaeological relics from ancient Persia. Some nearby archaeological sites date back to prehistoric times.
The mountain also holds a special place in Persian literature, notably in the tragic love story of Shirin and Farhad, written by 12th-century poet Nizami Ganjavi.
One of the critics argued in a post on X that renaming the street after Sinwar—who he said contributed to instability in the Middle East—was an unacceptable affront to Iran’s ancient heritage. The post added that "Bisotun is a cultural symbol, and changing its name is deeply disrespectful," he wrote in his post.
Even politicians who have no objection to honoring Sinwar with a street name have voiced concerns over the renaming of Bisotun Street.
Councilor Narjes Soleimani, the daughter of the late Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, warned that renaming such a culturally important street could have serious repercussions, highlighting the significance of Bisotun to Iranians.
The legacy of street name changes in post-revolution Iran
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the Shah, Iranian authorities have frequently renamed streets, squares, parks, and other public spaces to reflect the Islamic Republic's ideological values. Many of these name changes have been politically motivated, and some have created diplomatic challenges with other countries.
Shortly after the revolution, Pahlavi Avenue, once the longest streets in the Middle East named to honor the Pahlavi Dynasty, was renamed Mosaddegh Avenue in honor of Mohammad Mosaddegh, the nationalist prime minister overthrown in 1953.
A year later, Islamists who had gained the upper hand in the country renamed the avenue again. It has since been called Vali Asr, a title of the twelfth Shia Imam, Mahdi. Some people still call it Pahlavi.
“Bisotun is one of the prides of Iran's cultural heritage, and eradicating its name from Tehran will not send a good message to Iranians. Why don't you rename Khaled Islambouli Street, [named after] a Takfiri terrorist and associate of Ayman al-Zawahiri, after Sinwar?”, Abdolreza Davari, a former advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who now supports President Masoud Pezeshkian, asked in an X post.
The street referred to by Davari, was named Khalid Islambouli after a lieutenant in the Egyptian army who assassinated the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981 because Sadat had opened his arms to his long-time friend, the Shah, granted him political asylum, and held a state funeral for him when he died of cancer in 1980.
Cairo still considers the street’s name an affront to the Egyptian nation. Iranian diplomat Amir Mousavi in July 2023 told Faraz Daily that the street name was one of the last hurdles to be overcome to make the normalization of Tehran-Cairo relations, which were severed over four decades ago, possible.
