The Islamic Republic may hold a march displaying banners and military weaponry, producing an appearance of unity. But when legitimacy is imposed on people, then it is no longer legitimate.
February 11 is meant to be the Islamic Republic’s annual demonstration of legitimacy. It’s a day when the state floods Iran’s streets with flags, slogans and choreographed crowds to commemorate the fall of the Shah, the rise of Ruhollah Khomeini and the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
This year, with everything on the line for the future of the republic, the regime’s messages make it clear how much it needs to perform.
State aligned Tasnim News Agency reported that “extensive arrangements” had been made for mass rallies across the country, starting simultaneously at 9:30 a.m. It cited plans for more than 7,700 journalists to cover the events, including 200 foreign reporters stationed along the march routes. More than 2,000 “service and cultural booths” will line the streets of Tehran.
Military and aerospace organizations, squirt said, it will unveil “the latest equipment and achievements” along the routes to showcase Iran’s “scientific power and military expertise alongside the people.”
The presence of “adoring” crowds and applause is meant to symbolize the power and legitimacy of the Islamic Republic, but it is power and legitimacy with excellent production values.
In a separate report published late Monday byIran Internationala second form of mobilization was shared. According to sources close to the families of some of those detained during the ongoing anti-regime protests, intelligence officers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence pressured the families of those arrested during the nationwide protests to attend the February 11 rally. Their presence, the report says, must be “verifiable”. Families were told to take photos and videos of themselves at the march and send them to security agencies. These demands are coupled with threats and psychological pressure.
A country’s anniversaries should commemorate a founding myth. When a government starts putting conditions on someone’s participation in a rally, it signals how deeply the regime is hated by the public.
For a ruling authority that has watched millions of its citizens take to the streets over the past two months to demand its demise, it’s no surprise that the regime has done so much to try to put a positive spin on it.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a televised message in Tehran, Iran, February 9, 2026. (Credit: Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran/WANA via REUTERS)
In a televised message on Monday, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the date as the day “the strength and dignity of the Iranian nation is revealed every year,” calling the rallies “unparalleled in the world.” He framed participation as a kind of national weapon. By taking to the streets, he said, the Iranians are forcing those who “covet” the Islamic Republic to back down.
But Iranian identity has always been greater than any regime or any governing body, and it is precisely that longevity that makes the regime’s anxious choreography so telling. There is a civilizational continuity in Iran – an instinct of nationhood that predates the modern state by centuries. Over 2,000 years of nationhood is a concept dear to many Iranians, and many see their history as a story rooted in their homeland. They experience their nation through the idea of Iran rather than through any specific ideology.
Instead, Khamenei’s worldview—and by extension that of the Islamic Republic—has often prioritized the regime’s ideological project and regional position over the daily sustenance and prosperity of Iranian citizens. Its people have endured economic turmoil, environmental disasters and other hardships as the country’s wealth has been siphoned off to fund regional terrorist operatives such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
The Islamic regime is trying to control the narrative
“We are hopeful that, God willing, this Bahman 22 (in the Iranian calendar), like every Bahman 22 in the past years, will further increase the greatness of the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said in his message to the nation.
But Khamenei has nothing but contempt for Iranians, the people he has ruled for 36 years.
Despite being the country’s president and then its supreme leader, he never served the people. He cares more about his Islamist umma than the Iranian people.
Compare this with the former Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who, in his Nowruz (Iranian New Year) speech in 1976, said: “We, the Pahlavi dynasty, care only for love for Iran and no zeal for the dignity of Iranians; we recognize no duty but to serve our state and nation.”
That is why the anniversary of the revolution has become so charged.
It is the regime’s attempt to control a narrative when it has been clear to Iran watchers for months that the Islamic Republic no longer represents the people. People want to disappear.
The Islamic Republic may organize another march. It can still fill the streets with banners and reveal military weaponry. It can still produce the appearance of unity.
But this year, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with US President Donald Trump on February 11 to discuss possible action against Iran, the state’s grandiose performance rings hollow.
Legitimacy that is imposed on people is no longer legitimate.
Although February 11 will again be introduced as a national holiday, it could be the last time it is celebrated as a national holiday in the Islamic Republic.