Iranian State TV news anchor Sahar Emami is being lauded by supporters of the Iranian regime and its regional allies after continuing her broadcast during an Israeli airstrike on Iran’s state broadcasting headquarters on Monday.
Emami resumed her live broadcast shortly after the attack, earning praise online for her "resilience" and "bravery." On social media, she was featured alongside images of former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and other figures from the Iran-led Shiite axis. One post featuring her next to Nasrallah included the caption: “You cannot destroy an idea by killing.”
Live broadcast during Israeli airstrike on Iran’s state broadcasting headquarters
Zahra Bahramzadeh Azar, Iran’s vice president for Women and Family Affairs, also praised Emami in a post on the social media platform X, calling her the embodiment of Iranian women’s courage and stating tht she had become “the voice of all Iranian citizens in the face of aggression.”
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Emami is one of Iran’s best-known news anchors. Although trained in food engineering, she entered the media field and began anchoring in 2010. She rose to national prominence presenting on Iran’s official Khabar channel. Following Monday’s events, Arabic-language media ran stories about her, highlighting her “calm demeanor and confident expression.” Coverage also noted her “modesty and simple appearance, avoiding heavy makeup.” She is married and has one child.
The strike sparked widespread condemnation from pro-Iranian voices online. Hezbollah denounced what it called “a heinous Zionist crime targeting Iran’s broadcasting center,” describing the strike as “systematic terrorism” aimed at “silencing dissent, erasing truth and extinguishing the revolution of the Iranian people.”
Iran’s state broadcaster said in a statement: “The Zionist entity ruthlessly bombed the state media headquarters in Tehran. The enemy seeks to silence the voice of the noble Iranian people by targeting the news channel.” The head of the broadcasting authority claimed the attack was “a reflection of the impact of Iran’s national media on Israeli media. This assault has not and will not break the determination of Iran’s journalists.”
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen also condemned the strike, calling it “a desperate attempt to obscure the facts and silence free voices.”