At the end of March, during the war, a campaign titled “Sacrificing Life” was launched in Iran. In one of its first announcements, on March 28, it said that alongside “enemy threats” — from the United States and Israel — against Iran’s shores, islands and borders, a popular initiative had been launched to confront those threats and declare the readiness of Iranians to defend the country’s territory.
A phone number was provided through which people could join the campaign by sending the digit 1. The following day, it was already claimed that more than 600,000 volunteers had been recruited to the campaign, declaring “their readiness to defend the country.” The figures, at least according to Iranian reports on channels affiliated with the regime, have since risen significantly. By March 31, more than 3.4 million people were reported to have registered, a process that, at least for now, does not require much of them in practice.
Iran’s recruitment campaign
On April 1, it was reported that Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had also joined the campaign and expressed his willingness to sacrifice himself for Iran. In a post on the social media platform X, he addressed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, writing: “Our teacher and guide, we miss you greatly. Pray for us so that we may have a good ending.” According to reports in Iran that day, the campaign had already surpassed 6 million volunteers.
On April 2, Iranian regime-affiliated media reported that Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei had also joined the “sacrifice” campaign. That same day, Ghalibaf published another post on X, writing: “This is what we do. We give everything we have for the country we love. We have poured out our youth, our blood and every tomorrow we had for Iran. We are not warmongers, but when the time comes to defend our homeland, each of us becomes a soldier. In less than a week, a powerful national campaign sweeping the country has led about 7 million Iranians to rise up and declare they are ready to take up arms and defend our nation. Let me tell you something straight from the heart: Iranians do not just talk about defending their country, we bleed for it. We have done it before and we are ready to do it again. If you come for our home, you will meet the whole family. Locked, loaded and standing tall. Bring it on.”
Iran’s Fars news agency wrote that same day: “The wave of sacrifice for Iran is growing day by day. So far, more than 7.5 million people have registered for this national movement. This massive popular wave shows the solidarity of the Iranian nation in defending the country’s land, its honor and its territorial integrity against enemy threats.”
It was later reported in Iran that Police Commander Ahmad Reza Radan, senior official Mohammad Mokhber and others — including politicians, clerics and even athletes — had joined the campaign. According to the reports, Mokhber said upon registering that “security in Iran is based on the people, and the Iranian people have always acted together against the enemy.” Videos encouraging enlistment have also been circulated on Iranian channels as part of the campaign.
In recent days, a sign was hung in Palestine Square in Tehran bearing broken Hebrew that read: “You should also come with the Americans by land. We are waiting for you” (sic). Alongside reports on the new sign, regime-affiliated channels claimed that more than 10 million people had already registered for the campaign.
It is worth noting that Iranian media coverage of Palestine Square — where signs are routinely displayed to threaten the United States and Israel — has declined significantly during the war, making this an unusual instance in which Iranian channels are amplifying a sign in the square to convey the message that Iran is mobilized.
As of this morning, Iranian channels claimed the number of volunteers has surpassed 13 million and continues to rise — a very high figure even for a country with a population of more than 90 million. However, although the campaign purports to serve as a “first line of defense” in the event of a ground invasion, it remains unclear what the large number of registrants actually means.
It is not clear whether this is merely symbolic registration to demonstrate willingness, or whether it entails concrete changes on the ground. This comes as the regime is running additional recruitment campaigns in parallel, such as the recently reported “Defenders of the Homeland” initiative, in which children are recruited to staff Basij positions — the Basij being a paramilitary force affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.