Content note: Poster that shows the deposed Shah kneeling and abased before Khomeini under a Quranic verse of condemnation. This object is shown as it was published. Why
The Shah kneeling before Khomeini beneath a Quranic scroll: Iranian poster, 1980
Painted poster: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in a white dress uniform with orders kneels, clutching the cloak of a standing, bespectacled cleric in a black turban and blue robe, who looks down at him; above them a scroll carries a Quranic verse in Arabic with a Persian rendering. The tell: the verse speaks of those who 'disbelieved and did wrong', and its placement over the kneeling monarch applies that label without naming him, while the cleric's pose lends the verdict religious authority.
- Date
- 1980
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Publisher not stated (poster collected in Iran by Christian Bromberger)
- Country
- Iran
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Islamic Republic of Iran
- Leader
- Ruhollah Khomeini
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Event
- Iranian Revolution
- Techniques
- Name-callingTransfer
- 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
Author unknown. Fonds Christian Bromberger, MMSH, MédiHAL 1797071, Licence Ouverte 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَظَلَمُوا لَمْ يَكُنِ اللَّهُ لِيَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ وَلَا لِيَهْدِيَهُمْ طَرِيقًا براستی کسانی که کفر ورزیدند و ستم کردند خداوند بر آن نیست که آنان را ببخشاید و برای هدایت کند
Indeed, those who disbelieved and wronged, God will not forgive them, nor guide them to any way. Indeed, those who disbelieved and committed injustice, it is not for God to forgive them and to guide them.
The Arabic is vocalised on the scroll; it matches Quran 4:168 as read. The Persian line is read from the image, whose last words ('...ببخشاید و برای هدایت کند') are slightly blurred, so that wording could be misread. The English is a literal machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.
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