A couple is carried on a flower-decorated military vehicle during a mass wedding ceremony for Self-Sacrificing Couples, organised by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in southern Tehran, Iran, on 18 May. The term “Self-Sacrificing”, or Jan-fada, refers to people who express readiness to defend the Islamic Republic in the event of a military conflict.

• Iranian authorities held mass public weddings in Tehran for couples pledging to sacrifice their lives against the US and Israel.
• The ceremonies were broadcast on state television to boost wartime morale amid threats from President Donald Trump.
• Hundreds of couples married across Tehran’s major squares in ceremonies featuring military jeeps and images of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Iranian authorities held mass public weddings in Tehran for couples who signed up to a state-sponsored scheme declaring their readiness to sacrifice their lives in the war against the US and Israel.

The ceremonies held late on Monday involved hundreds of couples across several major squares in the capital, including more than 100 in the vast Imam Hossein Square in central Tehran, according to reports in Iranian media.

They were broadcast on state TV in a bid to boost wartime morale, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatening new military action against Iran amid a shaky ceasefire which halted the fighting that began on 28 February.

Those involved had signed up, according to Iranian media, for the so-called “self-sacrifice” scheme (janfada in Persian) where people pledged to put their lives on the line in the war by, for example, forming human chains outside power stations.

Iranian authorities say millions of people, including top figures such as the speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and President Masoud Pezeshkian, have put their names forward.

Couples arrived at the Imam Hossein square in military jeeps with mounted machine guns and were married on a stage in a ceremony presided over by a cleric, AFP images showed.

The stage was festooned with balloons and with a giant image of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since being elevated to the position after the killing of his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war.

“Certainly, the country is at war, but young people also have the right to marry,” one young woman in a white Islamic bridal dress, who was not named, said beside her groom in footage published by the Mehr news agency.

A man in a dark suit, beside his bride-to-be, said they were happy the occasion marked the anniversary of the marriage of Imam Ali, revered by Shia Muslims, to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed.

He said:

Mehr said 110 couples had participated in the ceremony alone in Imam Hossein Square. The AFP images showed crowds of well-wishers clasping roses and watching on.

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Since the start of the war, Iranian authorities have held, on a near-daily basis, major pro-government gatherings in a bid to highlight popular mobilisation amid the conflict.