Iran’s flag businesses on fire as anti-US, Israel protests continue

Business is thriving for Iran’s largest flag factory which makes US, British and Israeli flags for Iranian protesters to burn following the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.

The Diba Parcham Khomeini factory based in the town of Khomein, southwest of the capital Tehran, produces nearly 2,000 US and Israeli flags a month during its busiest periods, and more than 1.5 million square feet of flags a year.

Demonstrators regularly trample on and set fire to the flags of Israel, the US and Britain during protests in state-sponsored rallies, and diplomatic tensions between the US and Iran are currently at breaking point.

Ghasem Ghanjani, who owns the Diba Parcham flag factory, said: “We have no problem with the American and British people. We have a problem with their governors. We have a problem with their presidents, with the wrong policy they have.”

“The people of America and Israel know that we have no problem with them. If people burn the flags of these countries at different rallies, it is only to show their protest.”

Each flag is painstakingly printed on the stone with templates by hand before being hung to dry and later washed – all before they’re bought, burned and the whole process is repeated.

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According to the Daily Mail, one of the most popular flags made by the factory is a revamp of the Israeli national flag, featuring the Star of David and donned with “Death to Israel” in Persian. Iran does not recognise the state of Israel.

Tensions between the US and Iran have reached the highest level in decades as thousands mourned the loss of top military commander Qassem Soleimani, prompting Iran to retaliate with a missile attack against a US base in Iraq days later.

Haartez reported Rezaei, a quality control manager, who declined to give her first name, saying: “Compared to the cowardly actions of the United States, such as General Soleimani’s assassination, this [burning an American flag] is a minimal thing against them. This is the least that can be done.”

Last November, however, many Iranians took to the streets to protest against the country’s top authorities, chanting “our enemy is not the US, our enemy is here.”

During protests that erupted after Tehran admitted shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane by mistake, killing 176 people earlier this month, demonstrators at Shaheed Beheshti University in Tehran refused to step on an American flag painted on the street in a public act of defiance.