A towering image of Donald Trump with his mouth sewn shut looms over Valiasr Avenue, one of Tehran’s busiest thoroughfares. The US president’s mouth is covered by a blue veil in the shape of the Strait of Hormuz.  

Beside his image, a slogan in Persian – which graphic designers have made sure to also translate into English reads: “At the breaking point.” Commuters make their way past an anti-US billboard referring to President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz, installed on a building at the Valiasr Square in Tehran on May 2, 2026

The billboard-sized poster was installed on May 2, when the war was in full swing and negotiations over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz had stalled. This maritime passage, which Iran seeks to control – and through which nearly 25% of the world’s oil is transported, is displayed here as a weapon capable of silencing Washington.

Since the start of the war against the United States and Israel, these colourful murals have been displayed across the capital.

Very few images make it out of the country. Journalists in Iran are subject to intense scrutiny, and the internet is still largely cut off for the public, especially during the first few months of the war. Motorists drive along Tehran’s Enghelab Square on July 15, 2026, past a giant anti-US billboard featuring US president Donald Trump in a coffin with text in Persian reading “We Kill Trump”. Hostilities renewed between Iran and the US, endangering a memorandum of understanding, reached in June with Qatari and Pakistani mediation, aimed at ending the war. The confrontation resumed on July 7 after attacks on ships in the Gulf, which Iran has attributed to Iran. (Photo by AFP) /

However, Iran’s leaders permit and even encourage news agencies to photograph and officially circulate posters like the one where Trump’s mouth is sewn shut.  The image was widely shared by international media on social media.

Other posters include a mural of Iranian drones shattering the Star of David and protesters chanting “Death to America”. Iranian women walk past an anti-US and anti-Israeli mural in Tehran on June 3, 2026.

Another banner depicts the lineage of religious leaders standing together on a field of flowers: the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini, stands beside Ali Khamenei – killed in the war’s initial strikes on February 28 – who hands the Iranian flag to his successor and son, Mojtaba Khamenei. A banner displayed at Valiasr Square in central Tehran depicts Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son and new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

The walls and buildings of Tehran have become canvases for state propaganda. The messaging is not just targeted at Iranian citizens – it’s also intended to speak to Iran’s foes.

A tradition of visual messaging
While many of these monumental wartime billboards are now designed to be shared by non-Iranians outside of its borders, they are part of a long tradition of visual propaganda within the country.

For Iranians, they are a fixture of the urban landscape. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, walls have served as a “space for political expression”, explains Sepideh Parsapajouh, an anthropologist and researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). People cross a street past a mural that reads ‘Down with the USA’

Large-scale murals constantly reinforce the narrative of the values ​​upheld by the Islamic Republic – be it to eulogise martyrs of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) and display revolutionary slogans, or express anti-American sentiment and hostility towards Israel. “The city thus becomes a vast narrative space,” the researcher explained.

However, this culture of visual messaging predates the current regime by a long time. According to Parsapajouh, this method of storytelling through images is rooted in an older tradition called “pardeh-khâni” – a practice in which a storyteller would share religious or epic tales in front of a massive painted canvas depicting various scenes from the story.

Industrial-scale propaganda
“At the start of the Iran-Iraq War, many of the paintings were created by committed artists, art students, and sometimes talented amateurs,” said Parsapajouh, adding that there were also community-driven local initiatives.

“Sometimes, the families of martyrs made requests. Artists painted portraits of young men who had died on the walls of their homes, as gifts for their mothers. There was a deep personal and emotional dimension to it.”

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But this artistic and emotional dimension gradually faded away. “It became institutionalised very quickly. The murals turned into actual state-commissioned projects,” she noted.

Today, the process is entirely centralised. The massive billboards that have replaced hand-painted murals are commissioned directly by government bodies. Some designs are produced by the “House of Islamic Revolution Designers”, a semi-governmental arts and media organisation. The installation of the designs is managed by several institutions, including the Islamic Development Organisation and the Tehran Municipality’s Beautification Bureau.

There’s been a change in medium as well. Delicately painted murals have given way to giant printed banners that can be installed or replaced in a matter of hours – allowing the Iranian regime to adapt its visual messaging in real time.

‘The Lord of the Rings’ treatment
AI has also played a major role in accelerating the speed with which these often-theatrical images are rendered, and it has also affected the actual content of the posters.

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“Compositions today are far more sophisticated. They borrow the visual language of advertising, cinema, and blockbuster movie posters,” observed Parsapajouh.

Some even draw on Western pop culture. One notable example, displayed on the facade of a building in Fatemi Square in east-central Tehran, caught the attention of several Western media outlets because it referenced fantasy saga “The Lord of the Rings”. A woman walks past a large billboard referring to the Strait of Hormuz in Tehran on April 15, 2026

A programme on popular Franco-German channel Arte called “Le Dessous des Images” (“Behind the Image”) highlights this mural, which depicts two colossal statues standing on either side of a narrow waterway symbolising the Strait of Hormuz. Their arms are outstretched in a signal to block aircraft carriers and warships from passing through.

The statue on the left is Alireza Tangsiri, the former commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guard Navy who was killed on March 26, 2026, in a bombing by Israel. On the right is Rais Ali Delvari, an Iranian national hero renowned for organising local resistance against British forces in the Tangestan region in 1915.

The image bears an undeniable resemblance to the Argonath – the “Gates of Kings” from “The Lord of the Rings” franchise where two enormous statues flanking a narrow waterway symbolically marked the entrance to the Kingdom of Gondor and warn off any enemies trying to enter, in the world of Tolkien. 

Such depictions “effectively immortalsze political figures by casting them as heroes”, said Parsapajouh.

Politicians, soldiers, and scientists immortalized

Tehran’s walls are plastered with portraits of figures such as former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei or members of the Revolutionary Guards killed in Israeli-American air strikes. They appear alongside other iconic figures of the Islamic Republic, such as General Qassem Soleimani – the former commander of the Quds Force – who was killed in a US strike in Iraq in 2020.

“The hero may die, but he becomes immortal through this narrative. At Karbala, Imam Hussein died a martyr, yet his sacrifice became a memory that is constantly being renewed through his story. Contemporary murals follow this exact logic. The soldier, politician, or scientist who has been killed is not merely depicted as someone who has died; they become a hero, a martyr, and a character in a national and state story that is still being written,” explained Parsapajouh. A billboard depicts Iran’s slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei kissing the slain Islamic revolutionary guards commander Qasem Soleimani in Tehran on June 29, 2026.

“Tehran’s walls are not just a disconnected succession of images; together, they form a genuine visual text. Moving through the city, one passes from one story to another, from one martyr to the next, from one historical episode to another. The city constantly tells the story of its national history – a story told by those in power.”

Omnipresence doesn’t guarantee support
Propaganda in Tehran is also tailored to where it will be displayed. For example, murals celebrating anti-imperialism are displayed near the former US embassy. The images at Palestine Square frequently address their messaging directly to Israel; some are even translated into Hebrew.

Valiasr Square hosts the most monumental posters and Revolution Square remains one of the regime’s primary sites for visual communication with its citizens.

All these images are posted throughout the capital and seen daily by thousands of its residents.

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However, the omnipresence of these murals does not guarantee public support. “Most Tehran residents have lived with these images for decades. They are part of the urban landscape. Most passersby barely pay attention to them anymore. Others may have an emotional response, and some interpret them critically,” observed Parsapajouh, stressing that public imagery doesn’t necessarily reflect public opinion.

Regardless, “the city remains a space for dialogue”, she noted, and some Tehranis do not hesitate to reclaim the walls wherever there’s a gap to fill.

“Large, monumental walls are heavily controlled by institutions, but there are more discreet forms of expression like graffiti, inscriptions, subversive reworkings, and even acts of erasure. These are far less visible – often fleeting – yet they are photographed too and shared on social media.”

These forms of expression may be understated and often erased quickly, but they allow Tehranis to reclaim the narrative of their home and life in the capital.

This article has been translated from the original in French.