"War, war, until victory": Iranian war-affairs poster, 1980s
Painted poster: three male fighters of different ages in headbands lettered 'Ya Mahdi', a veiled woman at upper right, and a rifle in the foreground, against green, white and red bands. Large lettering reads 'War, war, until victory'. The tell: the slogan names 'victory' with no stated aim, and the invocations on the headbands and the flag colours lend religious and national prestige to the call for more war.
- Date
- 1980
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Art Committee of the War Affairs Headquarters, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (Iran)
- Country
- Iran
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Islamic Republic of Iran
- Leader
- Ruhollah Khomeini
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Themes
- War and the military, Religion
- Event
- Iran Iraq War
- Techniques
- Glittering generalitiesTransfer
- Leader
- Mojtaba Khamenei
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (poster of the Art Committee, War Affairs Headquarters, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain per Commons (PD-Iran); Iran has no U.S. copyright relations (Circular 38A)
Art Committee, War Affairs Headquarters, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Iran. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
با قامتی استوار بر بام بلند شهادت و ایثار، و با فریاد: جنگ، جنگ تا پیروزی [headbands, two red:] یا مهدی [headband, green: illegible] کمیته هنری ستاد امور جنگ وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامی [artist's signature, small, left: illegible]
With a firm stature on the high rooftop of martyrdom and self-sacrifice, and with the cry: War, war until victory [headbands, two red:] Ya Mahdi [headband, green: illegible] Art Committee of the War Affairs Headquarters Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance [artist's signature, small, left: illegible]
Read from a 600 px scan, with the lettering enlarged in sections. The line 'Ya Mahdi' on the two red headbands is partly obscured by the small portrait beside it. The English is a literal machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.
