Young women lighting up with Khamenei's photo become instant icons of Iranian resistance

A series of viral videos on X and other platforms saw young Iranian women using the photo of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light up their cigarettes in a gesture of ultimate contempt and defiance for the Islamic regime. The images have instantly become iconic of the Iranian protest movement and the centrality in it of young women. 

One of the most viral of the posts was confirmed to feature an Iranian based in Toronto, Canada, a radical feminist who answered critics pointing out she was not based in Iran by saying that "the Islamic regime failed to silence me in Iran for years despite torture, humiliation, and threats. Now, by labeling me a Zionist and exploiting the fact that after years of struggle I was forced to flee my country because my life was threatened by the Islamic regime, are you attempting to complete what the regime itself could not?"

The message was endorsed by France's Collectif Nemesis, a right wing feminist group. 

Young women have been central to the Iranian resistance movement in recent years. In 2022 nationwide protests broke out following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, tortured to death by Iran's morality police over non-observance of Islamic law on mandatory veiling. 

The slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom" quickly became the movement's rallying cry, affirming the centrality of women's rights for true liberty.