‘Death to Khamenei’ chanted during Iran state celebrations

Ghoncheh Habibiazad and Richard Irvine-Brown
BBC Persian and BBC Verify

Chants of “death to Khamenei” and “death to the dictator” have been heard during celebrations for the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

The celebrations began on Tuesday night across Iran, the eve of the anniversary, with people cheering and waving flags in mosques while pro-establishment crowds took to the streets during the day followed by firework displays in the evening.

It followed weeks of anti-government protests and a deadly government crackdown resulting in thousands of deaths amid a weeks-long internet blackout, which has since been lifted.

The state encouraged people to shout “Allahu Akbar” during the Islamic Revolution celebrations but we have verified footage of people in Tehran shouting “death to Khamenei” and “death to the dictator” from their homes and in the street.

We’ve located the videos to neighbourhoods in the west of Tehran. Each video featured fireworks in the background, a feature of the state’s celebrations, while we identified landmarks and road layouts to confirm the location of the videos. Reverse image searches on frames from the footage show the videos first appeared online late on Tuesday.