Overview
- The Associated Press and Deutsche Welle confirmed the 34‑second clip was recorded on Jan. 7 in Richmond Hill, Ontario, with the Oak Ridges Library visible in the background.
- The woman in the video identifies as an Iranian refugee in Toronto using the pseudonym Morticia Addams and has not claimed the footage was shot inside Iran.
- Deutsche Welle reports that many similar cigarette-lighting videos circulate from exiles abroad, whereas burning the supreme leader’s image in Iran can be prosecuted as muharaba.
- HRANA reports more than 2,670 people killed in the security crackdown, figures that are difficult to independently verify given restricted access.
- Iran’s near‑total phone shutdown and internet blackout since Jan. 8 have hampered verification and fueled a wider information battle that includes copycat acts and commentary about public silence in the West.