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.



Surgery on Colombian Senator Went Well after Shooting, Wife Says

Police officers guard the area surrounding the Fundacion Santa Fe clinic, where Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe is hospitalized after being shot in Bogota on June 8, 2025. (Photo by Alejandro MARTINEZ / AFP)
Police officers guard the area surrounding the Fundacion Santa Fe clinic, where Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe is hospitalized after being shot in Bogota on June 8, 2025. (Photo by Alejandro MARTINEZ / AFP)
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Surgery on Colombian Senator Went Well after Shooting, Wife Says

Police officers guard the area surrounding the Fundacion Santa Fe clinic, where Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe is hospitalized after being shot in Bogota on June 8, 2025. (Photo by Alejandro MARTINEZ / AFP)
Police officers guard the area surrounding the Fundacion Santa Fe clinic, where Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe is hospitalized after being shot in Bogota on June 8, 2025. (Photo by Alejandro MARTINEZ / AFP)

Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, a potential presidential contender, survived an initial operation for his injuries after being shot in Bogota on Saturday, according to his wife and the hospital treating him, although he remains in intensive care.

Uribe, 39, is a member of the opposition right-wing Democratic Center party and was shot in the head during a campaign event in a public park in the Fontibon neighborhood.

A boy under 15 years of age was arrested after the shooting, the attorney general's office said in a statement on Saturday, adding he was carrying a 9-millimeter Glock-type pistol.

The government said it is investigating if there were other potential perpetrators. Leftist President Gustavo Petro urged an investigation into who had ordered the attack in remarks late on Saturday.

Campaigning is just beginning for the country's 2026 presidential election and Uribe, who is from a prominent political family, does not have a well-known platform so far.

It was unclear why he was targeted in the attack. Though he has talked about the need to improve security and about having personally suffered in the country's conflict, many other potential candidates, including others from his party, have also said steps must be taken to tackle crime.

Uribe's grandfather was president from 1978 to 1982, while his mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped in 1990 by an armed group under the command of the late cartel leader Pablo Escobar. She was killed during a rescue operation in 1991.

"Miguel came out of surgery, he made it. Every hour is a critical hour. He fought his first battle, and it went well," his wife Maria Claudia Tarazona told local media on Sunday. "This will take time."

The couple are parents to a young son, Reuters reported.

In a statement, the Santa Fe Foundation hospital where Uribe was treated said he had procedures on his head and his left thigh, and remained in intensive care as doctors seek to stabilize his condition.

Uribe's party said in a statement that armed subjects shot him from behind. Videos on social media showed a man, identified as Uribe, being tended to after the shooting. He appeared to be bleeding from his head.

Bogota's mayor, Carlos Galan, whose own presidential candidate father was assassinated in 1989, addressed journalists outside the hospital overnight, saying he had asked for increased protection for all candidates in Bogota and for Uribe's family.

UNDER INVESTIGATION

The Colombian government is offering some $730,000 as a reward for information in the case.

"For now there is nothing more than hypothesis," Petro said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into. Uribe had the bodyguard protection provided for senators and other officials.

Petro sympathized with Uribe's family in a message on X, saying: "I don't know how to ease your pain. It is the pain of a mother lost, and of a homeland."

People gathered outside the hospital in northern Bogota, staging candlelight vigils and praying, while others carried Colombian flags. A march of support was planned for Sunday.

Several nations on Sunday including Brazil, Italy, Spain, Uruguay and Paraguay condemned the attack, as did the Venezuelan government and opposition.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the US "condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination" of Uribe, blaming Petro's "inflammatory rhetoric" for the violence.

Petro was an outspoken critic of US President Donald Trump's deportation policies earlier this year, but has been less vocal since Trump threatened to impose tariffs and sanctions on the Andean country.

Colombia has for decades been embroiled in a conflict between leftist rebels, criminal groups descended from right-wing paramilitaries, and the government.