Tehran, Iran – Media reports and eyewitnesses in the Iranian capital, Tehran, reported the arrest of two anti-government protesters wearing military uniforms. They were reportedly waving the Shirokhorshid (Lion and Sun) flag at a Tehran metro station during a rare protest within the capital’s public facilities.
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Videos posted on social media on Wednesday showed the moment of confrontation between the protesters and several passengers. When asked by a citizen if the scene was a “hidden camera” incident, one of the protesters responded loudly, “No, sir, this is a battle against the criminal regime of the Supreme Leader.”
Part of the video shows a passerby attempting to snatch the flag from the protesters before security forces intervened and arrested the two men. This occurred despite protests from some bystanders. In another clip, a female police officer appears to form a barrier between security personnel and a group of women who tried to prevent the arrests.
Jamaran News Agency confirmed that the arrests were carried out by Tehran Metro Police. It noted that the military uniforms worn by the two protesters belonged to the Army Air Defense Forces, without specifying whether they were current or former military personnel.
Calls for protests
Simultaneously with this incident, another video circulated on social media showing a man in military uniform. The man, identified as Ebrahim Aghaei Kamazani, claimed to be a former colonel in the Iranian army. In the video, he called for a protest march on Sunday, November 16, urging Iranians inside and outside the country to raise the Lion and Sun flag. He demanded “an end to the rule of the Supreme Leader.”
In his video message, Kamazani said: “I call on all the sons of the great Iranian nation to join us in a million-strong march to remove the criminal and unholy name of the Supreme Leader.”
Activists on social media linked the arrest of protesters in the metro to this call for action. They considered both events to reflect a new wave of symbolic anti-regime movements within Iran.
It is reported that Colonel Kamazani had previously faced threats of dismissal during his military service due to his criticism of the government. He was forced into early retirement for medical reasons after being transferred to the psychiatric ward of a military hospital in 2018. Observers have described this practice as “one of the tools used by authoritarian regimes to silence dissidents by psychologically damaging their reputations.”
These developments come at a time of increasing individual and televised protests within Iran. These protests express growing political and social discontent, despite strict security measures and censorship imposed on public and media spaces.
