For more than two weeks, thousands of people in Iran have been protesting against the governing regime. Security forces have responded with violent crackdowns. According to the human rights organization HRANA, more than 2,670 people have been killed so far, including over 160 pro‑government individuals. The U.S.-based organization believes the true numbers are likely even higher.

Meanwhile, social media users worldwide are expressing solidarity with Iranian protesters. One of the most widely shared symbols: images and videos of young women lighting a cigarette from a burning photo of Iran’s political and religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. One particular clip has gone viral — but it is often being shared in a misleading context.

Is the viral video really from Iran?

Claim: "Bravest light in Iran: Iranian girl lights a picture of the brutal and oppressive supreme leader," says a widely shared video on Instagram featuring a woman igniting her cigarette from a burning photo of Khamenei.

The caption also states that the video was recorded "in the middle of a Tehran winter" and that the woman had broken several laws in this video. The video has been viewed more than 920,000 times and shared in many other languages such as Spanish and Turkish.

DW Fact check: Misleading

Our investigation shows the video was not filmed in Iran, despite widespread claims. The woman in the clip posts on X under the pseudonym "Morticia Addams", where she states she lives in Toronto, Canada. In one post, she notes the video was filmed on January 7.

Comments beneath the Instagram repost also point out that the clip is not from Iran. Media outlets and news agencies such as Reuters, have reported that it was shot in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto.

DW Fact check independently geolocated the video: Behind the woman,  the Oak Ridges Libraryin Richmond Hill is clearly visible.

Additionally, the woman from the video gave an interview to the Spanish online magazine "The Objective", explaining she is Iranian and lives in exile in Canada. For safety reasons, she uses a pseudonym while drawing attention to the protests in Iran. She fled Iran herself; her family still lives there. She says she created the video after seeing similar images posted by women inside Iran. Importantly, she never claimed her video was filmed in Iran.

Would "Morticia Addams” have broken laws if the video had been shot in Iran?

The clip has gone viral partly because the actions shown could be life‑threatening if carried out inside Iran.

According to non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the Iranian government systematically suppresses women's rights. A woman standing unveiled in the street, like "Morticia Addams" in the video, would risk arrest. The death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, after allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly, sparked mass protests across the country.

Under Iran's Sharia‑based laws, women face many legal restrictions. As DW Farsi editor Niloofar Gholami explains, "smoking for women in the streets was seen as a social taboo in Iran, despite the absence of any formal legal ban." In practice, women could face warnings from the morality police or even prison sentences, according to Gholami.

"In recent years, this long-standing taboo has significantly weakened, reflecting broader changes in social attitudes," Gholami notes.

However, burning a photo of Khamenei remains an "extremely dangerous act" in Iran. Gholami emphasizes that such an act is considered a serious crime under Iranian law, categorized as "muharaba", which can be loosely translated as "war against God." Iranians have received extraordinarily long prison sentences for similar acts.

According to media reports, including Euronews, a man who posted a video of himself burning a photo of Khamenei in November 2025 was found dead in his car hours later with a gunshot wound to the head.

A protest movement largely driven from exile

The trend of women lighting their cigarettes using burning photos of Khamenei is a symbolic act of defiance against the regime — and a call for freedom. But most of these videos circulating online come from women living in exile, who face far fewer risks than women in Iran.

Experts say that information from inside Iran has been heavily filtered by the government for years. Since January 8, the country has experienced a near-total phone shutdown and widespread internet blackout, making it extremely difficult to verify images and videos emerging from the country. This situation fuels the spread of disinformation — a problem explored in more detail in another recent DW fact check.

Contributors: Björn Kietzmann

Editors: Uta Steinwehr, Rachel Baig