A festival organized by Iran's US-sanctioned stated broadcaster has brought American, European and other international journalists and activists to Iran where they expressed solidarity with the Islamic Republic following a 12-day war with Israel.
From murals of Cyrus the Great to patriotic songs at Shia mourning ceremonies, Tehran is now leaning into pre-Islamic imagery it once viewed as anathema.
For a theocracy built on the rejection of monarchy and secular nationalism, the shift is a dramatic reversal, but one analysts say could reflect desperation, not strength.
“The total failure of the Khomeinism and Islamism as a sort of transnational ideology has meant that if there's anything to fall back upon, it’s version of nationalism,” said historian and author Arash Azizi.
“They understand it's a very foolish game to try to rule Iran and not be beholden to this Iranian patriotic idea that is so widely held," he said on this week's episode of Eye for Iran podcast.
Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies called the move political, not ideological. “This is not an organic phenomenon,” he said.
“It’s the state trying to create more political room for itself by co-opting elements of society by simply changing the discourse of security.”
The shift has accelerated in the aftermath of Iran’s 12-day war with Israel, which exposed serious weaknesses in the country’s military and cyber infrastructure.
No street protests occurred during or after the conflict, but nationwide strikes earlier this year pointed to simmering discontent, and Tehran appears eager to forestall any unrest.
Back to the future
Among the most visible signs of the change in tone was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s invitation to his eulogist to perform a patriotic ballad during a July 5 mourning ceremony usually dominated by religious chants.
Jonathan Harounoff, Israeli diplomat and author of Unveiled - A Book About Protests in Iran in 2022 - said Tehran's move was fueled by desperation.
“The Islamic Republic for the past 46 years has tried to expunge, tried to minimize and tried to supplant (pre-Islamic history) with this new version of history,” he said.
“Now that the regime has its back against the wall... you see a very clear attempt not to lose the people of Iran," Harounoff added. “I think many observers saw right through it. It was an attempt of trying to save face.”
Nationalistic to the core
But Tehran’s nationalist turn is unlikely to succeed, according to Professor Mehrzad Boroujerdi of Missouri University of Science and Technology, who has studied the Islamic Republic's uneasy relationship with Iranian identity since its inception.
“The regime has tried to de-emphasize any type of the iconography and symbols of Iranian nationalism ... the unease with pre-Islamic traditions like Nowruz, Charchand Besuri and others have continued,” he said. “And yet, Iranians' infatuation with those symbols ... continues to this day.”
Boroujerdi argues this tension has existed since the 1979 revolution, when Ayatollah Khomeini tried to replace Iranian identity with pan-Islamic ideology—and largely failed. “Despite the animosity toward the state that average citizens have,” he said, “Iranians... remain nationalistic to the core.”
Even Iran’s own power brokers, Azizi said, have begun to shift their rhetoric. “They make their arguments almost purely on the basis of Iranian national interest,” he said. “Transnationalist Islamist Khomeini theology has been such a total defeat".
At the funeral of two young men recently killed by security forces, mourners spontaneously broke into chants of Ey Iran—a patriotic anthem once sidelined by the Islamic Republic.
“There is no rally-around-the-flag effect,” Taleblu said. “And if you do see a rally, it's short lived and it's not as sticky.”
You can watch the full episode of Eye for Iran on YouTube or listen on any major podcast platform like Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music and Castbox.
The four-day event, held from July 17 to 21 under the slogan "Condemnation of Terrorism Against Media," is hosted by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), whose headquarters was bombed by Israel during its military assault on Iran.
American journalists and activists including Calla Walsh and Jennifer Koonings appear in videos and photos shared on the festival’s official X account, in which they voice support for Iran and criticize US foreign policy.
“Living in the United States, we’re constantly fed negative propaganda about places like Iran, portraying them as evil. But it’s so ridiculous that if you have two functioning brain cells, you know none of it is true," said New York-based journalist Koonings, speaking in front of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) drone.
"The US empire is the most criminal and evil entity on the planet,” she added.
Both IRIB and the IRGC are on the United States sanctions list.
“It is the greatest honor of my life to be visiting the Islamic Republic of Iran right now, at this moment, while it is under genocidal siege by the United States and the Zionist entity,” said Boston-based activist Calla Walsh, standing at the IRGC aerospace expo, with missiles in the background.
Iran's outreach to radical influencers
Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the US-based advocacy group UANI, says the Revolutionary Guards and Iranian intelligence services "have experience using conferences or junkets as a recruitment lure for Americans on the far left and right."
Entities like Sobh Festival are "trying to make inroads with radical US-based influencers and those individuals... with whom Iran's regime feels an ideological comradery," Brodsky said on X, urging the US policymakers and law enforcement to be vigilant.
The US state department this week launched a campaign urging US citizens not to visit Iran. Nationals from Britain, France and Germany among others are currently in Iranian detention, in moves condemned by their governments.
Other festival participants include activists, filmmakers, and journalists from the UK, Spain, Germany, Canada, Venezuela, and Brazil.
Attendees have been taken to locations attacked during Israel’s 12-day campaign.
In another video posted on X, German filmmaker Andreas Landeck is shown speaking through a translator. A male voice asks in Persian, “What are you seeing through your lens about these crimes?" to which Landeck responds: “I tried to find the personal belongings.”
Iran continues to be ranked among the world’s worst countries for press freedom.
According to Reporters Without Borders, “Iran has reinforced its position as one of the most repressive countries in terms of press freedom, with journalists and independent media constantly persecuted through arbitrary arrests and harsh sentences handed down after unfair trials before revolutionary courts.”
In June, the IRGC detained the family member of an Iran International anchor in Tehran to pressure the journalist to stop working with the network, in a move condemned by the network.
Two female journalists who covered the 2022 death of a young woman named Mahsa Amini in morality police custody spent 17 months in prison.
Amini’s death sparked widespread protests across Iran and drew international condemnation. The unrest and media coverage of them was violently quashed.
