Thousands of Iranians celebrated the 43rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran on Friday, marching in cars, bicycles or motorbikes due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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As in 2021, television announced the ban, due to the epidemic, of marches to mark the overthrow of the Shah's regime in 1979. Instead, Iranians used their cars, motorbikes and bicycles to converge on the iconic Azadi Square in Tehran.
Protesters had painted their vehicles in the red, white and green colors of the Iranian flag.
Windows down, some chanted "
Death to America
" and "
We will resist until the end
".
Others, the AFP photographer noted, got out of their vehicles in Azadi Square to burn American flags, shouting "
We will not surrender
".
Iranian state television broadcast images of similar rallies in other major cities, including Shiraz, Isfahan (center), Tabriz and Mashhad (north).
Protesters carried flags and portraits of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Iranian General Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad in January 2020.
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The celebrations mark the day Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile and overthrew the last government in place under the Pahlavi monarchy.
The marches were banned due to the epidemiological situation, as Iran is the country hardest hit by the pandemic in the region.
The coronavirus has infected more than 6.7 million people in Iran - out of a population of about 85 million - and killed more than 133,000, according to the Ministry of Health.
Nearly 55 million people have received two doses of the vaccine.
Alongside the pandemic, the Iranian economy is suffering from the sanctions imposed since 2018 by former US President Donald Trump who withdrew his country from the international nuclear agreement in 2015.
Iran is currently engaged in negotiations with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly and with the United States indirectly to revive this agreement, which is supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring the atomic bomb.
