"Cigarette Girl" against the regime Who is the woman who became a symbol of Iranian resistance?
A fugitive Iranian woman posts a video online in which she lights a photo of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and lights a cigarette. The action is copied and becomes a sign of resistance.
17.01.2026, 12:52
17.01.2026, 13:18
dpa
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- A viral video shows an Iranian refugee in Canada burning a picture of Ayatollah Khamenei to show her solidarity with protesters in Iran.
- The action was imitated worldwide, but also raised doubts about the authenticity and origin of the video. The woman remains anonymous and calls herself "Morticia Addams".
- According to her own statements, she was arrested and abused several times in Iran, now lives as a refugee in Toronto and is worried about the safety of her family in Iran.
A young woman, who introduces herself as a refugee from Iran, shows a picture of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the camera and sets it alight with a lighter. She then holds a cigarette in the flame, takes a deep drag and throws the burning paper to the ground. Her curly hair falls loosely to her shoulders and she is not wearing a hijab.
The video, which has been shared millions of times over the past few days, lasts 34 seconds. In doing so, the woman from Canada has posted a sign of resistance online that is now being copied again and again: People in several Western countries are following this gesture to demonstrate their solidarity for the protesters in Iran.
Social media has become a central arena for the struggle to control narratives in conflicts. In the age of AI and controlled disinformation online, the inclusion of the "Cigarette Girl" did not go unquestioned.
Where was the video made? Users attributed the background to Canada. There were also doubts about the authenticity of the video: Was the collar on correctly? Was the flame real? Would a woman let her hair get that close to the fire?
Name remains secret
The young woman did not respond to requests from the AP news agency to confirm her identity. But in media interviews, the authenticity of which was confirmed, she explained that she had taken the photo in Canada and explained the background to her action.
On the internet platform X, she introduces herself as a "radical feminist" and gives the name Morticia Addams in reference to the matriarch from the horror comedy "Addams Family". She does not want to give her real name for security reasons, she told the non-profit media portal "The Objective".
Regarding her past, she explained that she had been arrested and mistreated as a dissident in Iran before initially seeking safety in Turkey. There she received a student visa for Canada, where she now has refugee status and lives in Toronto.
She wanted to send a message to her country of origin with her video, which was made just before the almost complete internet ban in Iran. "I just wanted to tell my friends that my heart, my soul is with them," she told the Indian broadcaster CNN-News18 in an interview.
The first time she was arrested was during the November 2019 protests, the young woman said in the interviews. She was 17 years old at the time. "I was a staunch opponent of the Islamic regime," she told The Objective.
The security forces had used tasers and batons. "I spent a night in a detention center without my family knowing where I was or what had happened to me." Her family eventually secured her release. "From that moment on, I was under surveillance."
Fear for her family
During the protests of 2022, fueled by the death of 22-year-old Iranian Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody, the woman in the video said she joined a YouTube campaign against the hijab requirement. She then received threatening phone calls.
Two years later, after the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, she spoke out - and was arrested again. She was subjected to "severe humiliation and physical abuse", she said. She was then released on high bail without explanation. She fled the country.
But her family is still in Iran, the young woman explained. "I haven't heard from them for a few days," she said. "I'm really worried that the Islamic regime might attack them."
