Is this Really the End of “Death to America”?

An Iranian citizen journalist, who writes under a pseudonym to protect her identity, wrote the following article on the ground inside Iran.

In recent weeks, fresh “Death to America” graffiti has appeared on the walls of some Tehran streets. In order to show that the graffiti is not old, the artists have added the year to the bottom of their work: 2015, or 1394, the Iranian calendar year.

A few days ago, the appearance of such graffiti on a brick wall of the former American embassy in Tehran —  and its subsequent removal — hit the headlines, with several news sites publishing photographs. Certain media interpreted this event as a change in Iran’s attitude towards the United States.

“The slogans of ‘Death to America!’ have been wiped out from all around the former US embassy,” one site reported. “In recent days, this graffiti has been wiped out across Tehran, and now it is the turn of the embassy [itself]. It must be noted that this graffiti has gone up in the past few weeks — it has come to be known as  ‘Death to America 1915!’”

But the clean walls lasted no more than a few days; new “Death to America!” graffiti appeared at the same place and a second slogan was added a little further down the wall.

Immediately after the news was published, the Student’s Mobilization Organization, which has its headquarters in the former US embassy, published a statement denying the reports. “This morning the media published reports about wiping out the ‘Death to America!’ slogans from the walls of the Spy Nest,” it said. It went on to accuse those who want to normalize relations with the US of fabricating news and promised that the slogan “will always decorate these walls.”

Arguments over the “Death to America!” slogans and whether they should stay or be removed have been going oin Iran for many years. Sadegh Zibakalam, an outspoken professor of political sciences at the University of Tehran known for taunting hardliners — or even President Rouhani for the promises he has not kept — has advocated the removal of the slogan from the walls of Tehran for quite a long time. Last week, at a gathering to review the political and security aspects of the Vienna nuclear agreement, he repeated his call. The nuclear agreement, he said, “is the beginning of the end for the slogan ‘Death to America.’ I have said it before and now it has been proven that I was right. After Vienna, the main reaction of anti-Americans has been to say that the agreement is not the end of ‘Death to America’. [This reaction] goes to show that the Vienna agreement does indeed sound the death knell for the slogan.”

“It is possible that at the beginning, that is the day after the deal, conservative and radical forces will take action to show that the situation will not change in favor of opponents, critics, liberals and intellectuals,” Zibakalam told the British newspaper the Guardian in an interview in July. “They may scale up certain penalties and restrictions here and there, like shutting down a couple of newspapers, summoning a few authors and journalists to the judiciary, or similar measures. These are likely to happen in the short run. However, I believe in the long term the political atmosphere in Iran will gradually open up as a result of the rapprochement with the west, and the US in particular.”

“Some may still beat the drums of anti-Americanism,” he added, “but it will be difficult to persist with such policies and positions as intensely as before the deal. And this has a clear reason. Gradually, many Iranians will be asking the simple question that if we were able to resolve through intensive and persistent negotiations our differences with Americans on such a wide range of issues on the nuclear controversy...why shouldn’t we be able to reach agreements with them on other issues?”

Zibakalam appears to be right. While the optimism for solving the problems between the two countries has grown in Iran, not everyone is happy about it. The new spray-painted graffiti can only be seen as a reaction by those who want to prove to themselves and others that the improvement in relations is not going to happen.

So the story of disappearing and reappearing “Death to America!” graffiti is bound to continue for some time.

By Melody Khachaturian, Citizen Journalist

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