Videos of Armed Women in Iran Spark Authenticity Concerns Amid Ongoing Conflict
State media promotes footage of women in military convoys as evidence of support, while observers raise questions about potential AI manipulation.
Quick Look
Videos circulating on social media show women with military weaponry in several Iranian cities, framed by state media as a 'jihad of women.' Analysts suggest the footage may be digitally altered or AI-generated, while the regime faces significant domestic instability.
AI-generated summary
Videos emerging from Iran on social media appear to show women carrying Kalashnikov rifles and riding in armoured vehicles mounted with machine guns through streets in at least six Iranian cities, in displays promoted by state media as evidence of women's participation in the country's war effort.
The footage, claimed to have been shot in Rasht, Tehran, Mashhad, Qom, Bushehr and Qazvin, shows the women moving in organised convoys alongside IRGC personnel, who can be heard chanting pro-regime slogans.
Iranian state television has broadcast some of the clips. IRGC-affiliated outlets have described the parades as part of what they call the "jihad of women" in support of the Islamic Republic.
Some of the footage has since been questioned. Researchers and social media users have pointed to visual inconsistencies that they say could indicate AI-generated content or digital editing.
Euronews could not independently verify the videos. Iranian authorities have not acknowledged any of the material as fabricated.
Some women visible in the footage are not wearing the full hijab mandated under Iranian law, a detail that has drawn attention, given Tehran's decades-long enforcement of dress codes.
The use of women in state messaging is not new to the Islamic Republic. Since the 1979 revolution, official media have portrayed women as "mothers of martyrs" and as volunteers for the Basij paramilitary force, in a supporting role.
During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, such imagery was deployed extensively. Armed street parades of this kind are a departure from that pattern.
The footage has emerged as Iran faces its worst domestic crisis in decades amid the war.
Right before the ongoing war with the US and Israel, protests that began in December 2025 triggered by the collapse of the rial spread to at least 180 cities before security forces mounted a crackdown on 8 and 9 January 2026, in which thousands were killed.
Iran's Supreme Council of National Security put the death toll at 3,117. The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran said the figure was at least 5,000, while insiders in Iran and human rights organisations fear the number could have reached 32,000 or more.
Then the Iran war prompted the regime to prove popular support mixed with religious fervour to counter the US and Israeli onslaught and project a purported image of regime stability.
The Tehran regime has maintained an internet blackout since 8 January.
