Content note: Poster that shows two assassinated officials in flames and pictures the faces of named opponents under Statue of Liberty crowns. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Rajai and Bahonar in divine palms above Statue-of-Liberty figures: Isfahan Islamic Guidance poster, 1981
Tall poster in three bands. At top, the portraits of a man in a dark suit and a cleric in a white turban rest in two green open hands over flames. Below, three silhouetted figures with Statue of Liberty crowns, each holding a flame as a torch and each with a small photographic face, stand under Quranic lettering, a quotation from Khomeini and the credit line of the Isfahan Islamic Guidance office. The tell: the opponents are turned into a hated emblem, the rescued men into a sacred one.
- Date
- 1981
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- General Office of Islamic Guidance, Isfahan (Iran); artist not named
- Country
- Iran
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Islamic Republic of Iran
- Leader
- Ruhollah Khomeini
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Techniques
- TransferTestimonialName-calling
- 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
Poster of the General Office of Islamic Guidance, Isfahan. Fonds Christian Bromberger, MMSH, MédiHAL 1784247, Licence Ouverte 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
قلنا يا نار كوني برداً وسلاماً على إبراهيم گفتیم ای آتش سرد و سلامت باش بر ابراهیم « قرآن کریم » امام خمینی: آقای رجائی و آقای باهنر در نبرد با قدرتهای فاسد همرزم بودند « اداره کل ارشاد اسلامی اصفهان »
We said: O fire, be coolness and safety upon Abraham. We said: O fire, be cool and safe for Abraham ["Noble Quran"] Imam Khomeini: Mr. Rajai and Mr. Bahonar were comrades in arms in the fight against the corrupt powers. "General Office of Islamic Guidance, Isfahan"
First line Arabic (Quran 21:69), second line its Persian rendering with the source tag 'Quran-e Karim' in small script at left; the rest is Persian. The three men's faces carry no captions. The English is a literal machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.
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