🟩⬜🟥AZADI: Colors, Symbols, and a Hope That Outlives Every Regime!

AZADI: Colors, Symbols, and a Hope That Outlives Every Regime

When we speak about AZADI - freedom - we are not talking about a moment in history. We are talking about a current that has flowed through Iran for centuries, changing form, but never disappearing.

As artists, we carry responsibility. Symbols matter. Colors matter. Memory matters.

That is why AZADI - My Four Seasons is not just a song, but a conversation with history.

The Iranian Flag: Older Than Any Regime

The colors green, white, and red did not begin with the Islamic Republic, nor do they belong to any single political era.

They were standardized in the 19th century during the Qajar period, long before the Pahlavi dynasty and long before 1979. Across time, these colors have come to represent life and hope (green), peace and truth (white), and courage and sacrifice (red).

What matters today is this: 

The colors belong to Iran. To its people. Not to power.

That is why so many Iranians - artists, activists, and especially the younger generation - consciously choose to use only the colors, without imposed symbols. It is a way of reclaiming identity beyond ideology.

The Lion and the Sun: A Symbol Older Than Politics

One of the most misunderstood symbols in Iranian history is the Lion and Sun (Shir-o Khorshid).

Contrary to common belief, this symbol is not a creation of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It existed hundreds of years before him, appearing as early as the 12th and 13th centuries. Over time, it carried different meanings - astrological, cultural, spiritual, and national.

It was used by multiple dynasties, including the Safavids, Afsharids, Zands, and Qajars. The Pahlavi era did not invent it - they inherited it and reframed it within a modern state context.

After 1979, the symbol was removed and politically recast as “royalist,” but history is more complex than slogans.

The Lion and Sun belongs to Iran’s long memory, not to one ruler or one ideology.

Why Symbols Still Matter Today

Symbols are powerful because they survive censorship. They carry meaning across generations. When people are silenced, symbols speak.

That is why today you see different expressions of Iranian identity:

• some use the current flag,

• some use the Lion and Sun,

• and many choose only the tricolor - a quiet but powerful statement of unity beyond regimes.

There is no single “correct” symbol. What matters is intention.

AZADI – My Four Seasons

AZADI – My Four Seasons was created with this understanding.

The track moves through four seasons - not just of nature, but of history and emotion:

• spring as renewal,

• summer as life and intensity,

• autumn as memory and loss,

• winter as endurance.

It is dedicated to a young generation that has grown up with decades of protests, uncertainty, and broken promises. A generation that has learned resilience early, often too early.

This song is not a denial of pain.

It is a refusal to surrender hope.

Freedom is not only a future destination.

It is something that lives in persistence, in culture, in memory - and in art.

AZADI is not owned.

It is remembered.

And it returns - again and again - in all four seasons.