A group of leading Iranian tech entrepreneurs has warned President Masoud Pezeshkian that mounting state interference has left emigration the only remaining option for technology firms trying to survive.
The improbable image fills the front page of hardline daily Vatan-e Emrooz, presented as part of the Islamic Republic’s “new generation of resistance.”
But analysts told Iran International it is less a reflection of reality than a carefully crafted narrative aimed at shoring up support for Tehran after its 12-day war with Israel — the worst direct military confrontation in their fraught history.
The war left hundreds of civilians dead, damaged infrastructure and deepened economic strain. In its aftermath, the Iranian establishment has worked to project resilience and unity, even among citizens who defy its strict social codes.
The Vatan-e Emrooz cover accompanied a story built around a Foreign Policy article by an Iranian-American academic which argued that some young Iranians are rallying behind Tehran’s anti-West, anti-Israel stance in the war’s aftermath.
Following the bruising conflict, Tehran embraced nationalist symbols it long suppressed, with mythological tales and ancient monarchs adorning public billboards.
For author Arash Azizi, whose book What Iranians Want: Woman, Life, Freedom examines political and social change, this type of imagery is part of a familiar playbook.
Referring to a domestic militia and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, he described Vatan-e Emrooz as “a hardliner outlet, traditionally close to the Basij, which is a section of the IRGC … known for a very sensational sort of tabloid-style headlines.”
The paper, he added, has long featured stylish young who appear supportive of the establishment to imply that “even sections of the population that flout the hijab rules … nevertheless supports its foreign and military policies.”
Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, studies Iran’s younger generations and regularly tracks Gen Z and Gen Alpha trends.
She said that while this visual contrast between appearance and ideology is not new—women without hijab have backed hardliners, and chador-wearing women have voted reformist—the cover is nonetheless a strategic push.
“It’s for the regime to make a point, especially at a time when it has historically high anti‑regime sentiment, that ... we have the support of these individuals too that don’t usually fit the stereotypical box of what a good Islamic citizen in our view is," Dagres told Iran International.
No gesture by chance
Visual communication expert Siavash Rokni, who holds a PhD in communication and researcher in popular music at McGill University, sees deliberate messaging in the picture’s design: the woman’s ear “out of her scarf,” the bright blue clothes “evoking kind of happiness and rejuvenation and the future,” and her phone with a peace sign “as kind of the representation of Gen Z.”
Rokni also points to the way she holds her phone — not in a natural texting or scrolling posture, but almost like a prop, gripped sideways with fingers loosely wrapped around it. The position, he suggests, looks staged.
It’s an example of what Rokni calls the Islamic Republic’s turn to “soft war”—countering Western “soft power” via curated cultural imagery. The same effect is visible, he added, in rap lyrics and music videos where some artists are either funded or influenced by the IRGC to echo establishment talking points, while others openly align themselves with them.
Gen Z beyond reach?
Activist Tara Dachek, part of Iran’s Gen Z and now living abroad, sees the image as a sign of weakness, not strength. “The Islamic Republic is drowning — these are its last desperate gasps,” she told Iran International. Such visuals, she says, reflect “fear, repetition and desperation” rather than genuine engagement.
Having left Iran six years ago, Dachek believes the cover only affirms that her “generation is on the right path — the regime has already lost us.”
"Even back then, I didn’t trust state media. I never followed their news because I knew it wasn’t truth — it was survival wrapped in a lie," said Dachek.
Among younger Iranians, the dissatisfaction runs deep.
Surveys show that nearly 75% of Iranians—including many Gen Z individuals—opposed mandatory hijab, with 84% favoring a secular state over the Islamic Republic, according to GAMAAN — a Netherlands-based research organization that conducts large-scale online surveys of Iranians.
Gen Z, who wasn't yet born at the time of the 1979 revolution, frequently expresses opposition to both political Islam and compulsory dress codes while embracing global cultural values.
Despite Tehran’s efforts to project unity, young Iranians may not be as passive or easily swayed as officialdom believes. Shaped by years of protest and repression, they remain among the most vocal critics of the Islamic Republic.
“Some security agencies, through official letters, have prohibited government institutions from cooperating with the country’s major startups. This trend has continued with the sealing of central offices of certain companies, revocation of licenses, arrest of investors and executives, forced exit of shareholders and investors, and prevention of platforms from entering the stock market,” the letter said.
In the letter signed by the founders of Iran's largest e-commerce platform Digikala, travel agency Alibaba, streaming service Filimo, Android App Store Cafe Bazaar, and classifieds platform Divar, the group accused security bodies of executing a systematic effort to subdue and dominate the startup ecosystem and warned of the sector's imminent collapse.
They wrote that increasing political pressure has extinguished motivation among young professionals and forced a shift toward mass organizational migration.
“Now, today, we witness an unprecedented move: the same forces have issued an order to halt the operations and remove the founder of one of the major local platforms. The result of this process is the shutdown of one of the most exceptional innovation ecosystems in Iran’s history…. We are losing our human capital, financial investments, and the motivation of the new generation.”
The letter was referring to the removal of Divar’s founder, which the authors called an “extraordinary sign of security institutions asserting full control over the private sector.” They said the process had moved from interference to outright takeover.
IRGC officials informed regulators that the company’s IPO could proceed only if founder and CEO Hessam Mir Armandehi was removed—an instruction Armandehi later published in full.
The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Corp (IRGC) intelligence wing intervened this spring to block Divar’s stock market listing.
The move came after the company’s refusal to hand over user data or sell shares to firms tied to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s economic network, according to the report.
“This leads to lower investment, of course, and it leads to capital flight not only from investors in Divar but also in many other digital companies,” Mahdi Ghodsi, an economist at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, told The Washington Post.
“If they continue these kinds of policies, they are helping the collapse of the Islamic Republic.”
In their letter, the tech founders warned that countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia are actively recruiting Iran’s skilled workers and positioning themselves as regional centers of innovation. Iran, they wrote, is forfeiting its greatest asset: its people.
They urged Pezeshkian to end the securitization of the sector and restore trust before the remaining foundations of Iran’s innovation economy fall away.
