Last modified: 2025-07-12 by ian macdonald
Keywords: down with usa | iran |
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image located by William Garrison,
21 June 2022
A yellow-field flag with "DOWN WITH USA" slogans in both Farsi/Persian and English during a demonstration in Tehran, Iran; c. Nov. 2019. Also in the upper-left corner is the logo of the "Iran Basij militia-training school"; as seen here.
William Garrison, 21 June 2022
The context of this flag is that "each year on the 13th day of the month of
Aban (November 4), the Iranian nation, particularly the students, hold rallies
across the country to mark the anniversary of the takeover of the American
Embassy (also known as Iran hostage crisis), since Iranian students, mainly from
the University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University
of Technology (Polytechnic of Tehran), and Iran University of Science and
Technology, gathered around and formed a group called "دانشجویان مسلمان پیرو خط
امام" (English: Muslim Student Followers of
the Imam's Line ) which seized
the compound."
Sources:
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/media/2017/11/04/1564966/iranian-students-people-mark-us-embassy-takeover
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis
The slogan flag is
a yellow horizontal background, featuring in the canton the three tulip logo of
the Basij school, with the inscription in Persian in black capitals in the
middle, and the slogan below in black capitals, in English.
The
inscription in Farsi in the middle reads "مران امریکا" (English: "Down
with America", although a more proper translation is seen below in English black
capitals as the slogan reads "DOWN WITH USA").
Another image where the slogan
is clearly seen (top stripe) is here:
https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/an-iranian-member-of-the-basij-militia-holds-an-antius-slogan-during-picture-id92703860?s=594x594
Esteban Rivera, 21 June 2022
image located by William Garrison,
6 March 2025
On November 4, 1979, Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
Forty-five years later, in November 2024, this flag was released in Iran to
commemorate that event. A U.S. flag has been defaced with the slogan "DOWN WITH
U.S.A." in both English and Farsi (read right-to-left): "morg bar amrika" [ مرگ
بر آمریکا ].
William Garrison,
6 March 2025
See another example:
https://www.usatoday.com
U.S. flag with مران امریکا ("Down With America")
slogan printed in Arabic/Farsi on it (being burned in demonstration), in Tehran,
Iran, 4 Nov 2015, marking the 36th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S.
Embassy.
William Garrison,
3 December 2022
At
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/iranians-burn-us-flag-chant-death-to-israel
is a burning U.S. flag but in the blue canton the usual 5-pointed white stars
have been replaced with the six-pointed star of the Magen David shield of the
Jews (Israel); this trope is used sometimes to imply that Jews "control" the
American media and government towards favoring Israel. The Farsi slogan in the
middle white stripe reads: "Death to Israel" while the second-to-the-bottom
white stripe reads: ""Death to Amerika." The Farsi slogans appear to be
pre-printed with this flag by its manufacturer, except on the bottom white line
where an English slogan has been handwritten with: "Down with U.S.A." -
apparently just in case some Americans might not be able to read the Farsi
slogans. It appears that the usual bottom red stripe is missing. C. July 10,
2015, during pro-Palestinian "Quds Day" celebrations. AP photo.
Bill
Garrison, 21 June 2025
I believe the distorted US flag is more of making a statement in a symbolic
sense, versus trying to be accurate. It is very common for the stars to be
missing a few or the stripes not 7 red/6 white or the stripes are reversed. Many
times, these flags are made on a street or somewhere in a hurry so accuracy is
not the point. As for the Star of David/six-pointed stars versus five-pointed,
that choice I believe, is very intentional. I believe that way because of things
I will not go into here, because it is getting very close to political
territory, but it is also done because of how much folks in the United States
support Israel in a religious, political and cultural sense. For example, I have
seen
several of these flags in my town and in my area since the events of October
2023.
Zachary Harden, 25 June 2025