Following the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran's third Supreme Leader amid a massive regional conflict, citizens in Tehran have begun placing derogatory protest stickers on city walls to reject his leadership.
Against the backdrop of unprecedented US and Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran's military infrastructure and the Assembly of Experts' official appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as the Islamic Republic's third Supreme Leader, acts of civilian defiance are emerging in the capital. Citizens in Tehran are actively distributing and placing protest stickers on city walls to explicitly reject the new leadership.
According to a video sent by a citizen to Iran International—a prominent diaspora-based opposition network—protest stickers are appearing in various parts of Tehran. The stickers feature a derogatory phonetic pun on the new leader's name, Mojtaba, explicitly declaring: "Corrupt mouse, you are not our leader."
This grassroots protest activity was corroborated by the Persian-language channel کافه سیاست 🖤 (Politics Cafe), which reported identically that people are pasting these protest labels across different locations in the city. The localized acts of dissent coincide with recent calls from international figures, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who urged the Iranian populace to capitalize on the ongoing military crisis to overthrow the regime.
The phrase 'موش تباه' (Moosh-e tabah, literally translating to 'corrupt mouse' or 'ruined mouse') is a derogatory, phonetic pun on 'مجتبی' (Mojtaba), directly targeting the newly appointed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. The translation preserves the literal insult while the surrounding text contextualizes the pun.