Content note: Painted poster showing the deposed Shah crawling among spent bullet casings at the feet of Ayatollah Khomeini. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Khomeini among widows and orphans, with the fallen Shah at his feet: poster signed Norouzian, May 1979
Painted poster in the manner of a Persian miniature: Ayatollah Khomeini sits holding a child while a veiled girl offers him a red flower and other widows and children press in; a domed shrine is visible through the window, tulips lie on the steps, and at lower right a small figure in the Shah's ceremonial uniform crawls among spent cartridge cases. The tell: the miniature composition, the tulips and the shrine lend martyrdom and sanctuary to the sitter, while the shrunken, kneeling monarch is placed among the bullets.
- Date
- May 9, 1979
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Hossein Norouzian, painter (publisher not stated; collected in Iran by Christian Bromberger)
- Country
- Iran
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Individual
- Regime
- Islamic Republic of Iran
- Leader
- Ruhollah Khomeini
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- Iranian Revolution
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Leader
- Mojtaba Khamenei
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (from MédiHAL, Fonds Christian Bromberger, MMSH), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Licence Ouverte 2.0 (open licence applied by MédiHAL); Iran has no U.S. copyright relations
Hossein Norouzian (painter). Fonds Christian Bromberger, MMSH, MédiHAL 1784167, Licence Ouverte 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
[signature, lower right] ۵۸/۲/۱۹
[signature] 1358/2/19 (Solar Hijri), i.e. 9 May 1979
The only lettering is the painter's stylised signature (identified as Hossein Norouzian on the MédiHAL/Commons record; not independently legible here) and the date beside it, read as 58/2/19 in Persian numerals. The poster carries no slogan or caption. The English is a literal machine translation by Claude.
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