Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #ValiAsr
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The subtle inclusion of the assassinated Qassem #Soleimani in an supposedly apolitical mural on the occasion of the commemoration of the "Decade of Dignity" and "Girls' Day" in the latest mural on the #ValiAsr billboard in Teheran is an excellent example ... 1/7 
... of a current soft propaganda approach in the vast mural landscape of Tehran. Kevin Schwartz (via @Orientalniustav) and I already wrote in our article @jadaliyya on the #ValiAsr billboard's capacity to diversify the type of regime messaging. 2/7
jadaliyya.com/Details/41116
jadaliyya.com/Details/41116
We have pointed out there the great significance that #Soleimani's martyrdom immediately after his death took on in this new style of propaganda. Since then his picture has appeared in numerous other murals, mostly in a very subtle way. (Though sometimes also in the clouds.) 3/7
The #ValiAsr billboard in Teheran is designed to change its image with frequency. This flexibility allows it to diversify its messaging and to employ a subtle style of soft propaganda in #Iran. K Schwartz @Orientalniustav and I wrote this:⤵️ jadaliyya.com/Details/41116 via @jadaliyya
The #ValiAsr billboard has the capacity to respond to rapidly unfolding events. It lives in the moment and can go one day from venerating the martyrdom of #Soleimani to displaying a call for unity in the face of #corona the next. We discuss this style of #propaganda in our piece.
With its capacity to toggle between divergent types of messaging, the #ValiAsr mural mixes thematically controversial images associated with the regime's hard #propaganda with more mundane ones like innocent holiday greeting for the winter solstice (shab-e yalda). See link above.
