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Tehran Regime’s Attempt to Use Images of Renowned Women to End Protests Fails

This combination of pictures created on October 14, 2022 shows (L) Iranians driving past past a huge billboard which reads in Persian “the women of my land, Iran” in Valiasr Square in the capital Tehran, and (R) an image taken on October 13, of a huge billboard showing a montage of pictures titled “the women of my land, Iran” featuring Iranian women who are all observing the hijab, on Valiasr Square in Tehran.(AFP)
This combination of pictures created on October 14, 2022 shows (L) Iranians driving past past a huge billboard which reads in Persian “the women of my land, Iran” in Valiasr Square in the capital Tehran, and (R) an image taken on October 13, of a huge billboard showing a montage of pictures titled “the women of my land, Iran” featuring Iranian women who are all observing the hijab, on Valiasr Square in Tehran.(AFP)
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Tehran Regime’s Attempt to Use Images of Renowned Women to End Protests Fails

This combination of pictures created on October 14, 2022 shows (L) Iranians driving past past a huge billboard which reads in Persian “the women of my land, Iran” in Valiasr Square in the capital Tehran, and (R) an image taken on October 13, of a huge billboard showing a montage of pictures titled “the women of my land, Iran” featuring Iranian women who are all observing the hijab, on Valiasr Square in Tehran.(AFP)
This combination of pictures created on October 14, 2022 shows (L) Iranians driving past past a huge billboard which reads in Persian “the women of my land, Iran” in Valiasr Square in the capital Tehran, and (R) an image taken on October 13, of a huge billboard showing a montage of pictures titled “the women of my land, Iran” featuring Iranian women who are all observing the hijab, on Valiasr Square in Tehran.(AFP)

A photomontage of dozens of renowned Iranian women all observing hijab disappeared from a Tehran billboard Friday.

Authorities hung up the large montage in a bid to show they had the support of famous women amid ongoing anti-government protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.

The move backfired and the montage was removed within 24 hours of being erected as it featured some personalities known to oppose the headscarf rule.

Outrage over Amini’s death on September 16, three days after she was arrested by the notorious morality police, has fueled the biggest wave of street protests and violence seen in the country for years.

The montage featured athletes, social and cultural figures, such as late mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, early 20th-century revolutionary figure Bibi Maryam Bakhtiari and poet Parvin E’tesami.

Fars news agency said the montage was removed after some of the figures featured had asked for their pictures to be taken down, saying they were not consulted beforehand.

Some observers criticized the billboard for showing women who had removed their headscarves during the recent protests, it added.

Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya demanded that her picture be removed.

“I am Mahsa’s mother, I am Sarina’s mother, I am the mother of all the children who are killed in this land, I am the mother of all Iran, not a woman in the land of killers,” Motamed-Arya said on Thursday in a video that has since gone viral.

She appeared in the video without a hijab headscarf, seemingly in a vehicle.

The billboard was raised by Owj Arts and Media Organization, known for pro-regime films and cultural productions.

The decision to remove the pictures was taken after “controversies and reactions,” the organization said in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA.

The billboard on Valiasr Square often features symbolic murals related to religious, social and political themes.

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World

Millions of Children to Suffer from Trump Aid Cuts

Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File
Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File
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Millions of Children to Suffer from Trump Aid Cuts

Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File
Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File

When he grows up, five-year-old Ahmad wants to be "stronger than Spider-Man".
But his dream clashes with a harsh reality -- the Jordanian boy has a serious disability, and major US aid cuts mean he will likely miss out on vital care.
Like him, millions of children around the world are suffering from the sweeping cuts ordered by US President Donald Trump.
All are grappling with hardship in one form or other: war, crime, global warming, poverty, disease and more.
Ahmad, who has a spinal malformation, cannot hold his torso upright and is paralyzed from the waist down.
The boy was receiving physiotherapy sessions from Handicap International "to strengthen his upper limbs and enable him, later on, to walk with crutches," said his father, Mahmud Abdulrahman, a 30-year-old day laborer.
Abdulrahman said the non-governmental organization was also due to provide orthotics and prosthetics to straighten Ahmad's lower limbs -- none of which he could afford on his meagre salary.
Now, none of that will happen.
The Wehdat Rehabilitation Center they attended in Jordan's capital Amman was one of the first victims of Trump's aid cuts.
More than 600 patients found themselves deprived of care overnight.
Prosthetics already specially designed for around 30 children, as well as wheelchairs, could not be delivered to them, on Washington's orders.
"The movement that was taught will be forgotten," said Dr Abdullah Hmoud, a physiotherapist who worked at the center, describing the potential losses as "catastrophic".
There is also emotional suffering.
When he realized he would no longer see his physiotherapist, "Ahmad stopped eating for three days. He didn't want to get up," said his father.
With the closure of his rehabilitation center, "I feel like they want to kill me," the boy said in a hushed voice.
Global fallout
Ahmad's story is one among many in a wave of horror accounts surfacing from the humanitarian sector since the United States said it was cutting 83 percent of its aid.
USAID -- which the Trump administration has dismantled -- had supported 42 percent of all aid distributed globally, with a $42.8 billion budget.
At a refugee camp in Bangladesh, home to a million Rohingya Muslims who fled persecution in Myanmar, half of them children, Save the Children has been forced to ration food.
The NGO fears desperate families could be pushed to hand over daughters to traffickers or send sons on dangerous sea crossings to Malaysia for work.
In Mozambique, Solidarites International had to shut down a program providing food and water to internally displaced people, including tens of thousands of children.
In Malawi, similar numbers will no longer receive free school meals, according to another NGO which requested anonymity for fear of US reprisals.
Without food, many children will drop out of school -- all the more galling, the NGO said, as millions of meals are reportedly left to rot in warehouses due to the US decision.
"It's like the rug is being pulled out from under their feet," said one staff member.
'Last lifelines'
Women and girls are often the first to lose out, with their education traditionally sacrificed first.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said it will have to "significantly reduce" aid to women and girls in Afghanistan because the US funds paid for many of the female staff who worked with them.
"The very last lifelines for many women and girls will be taken away," said Camilla Waszink, a director at the organization.
Malnutrition already affects 150 million children under five, and the numbers could surge.
"Millions of additional children will suffer stunted growth" and impaired brain capacity, said Kevin Goldberg, director of Solidarites International.
In another blow to children, Washington is expected to drastically reduce funding for vaccination programs in poor countries.
Sania Nishtar, CEO of the Vaccine Alliance, warned the cuts -- if confirmed -- could result in "an estimated 1.3 million children dying from vaccine-preventable diseases".