Rare defiance on Tehran’s metro: soldiers wave Iran’s pre-revolution lion flag
Footage from the Tehran metro shows Iranian soldiers openly waving the country’s original flag, bearing the lion-and-sun emblem used before the Islamic Revolution — a direct challenge to the symbols of the current regime.
For uniformed soldiers to display that flag in public is a bold act of protest in a state that harshly punishes dissent, especially inside the security forces. The lion-and-sun banner has long been adopted by regime opponents as a symbol of a free, pre-Khomeini Iran.