The picture was shot in Tehran in 1971, no 1973. Sima, the woman in the picture, had just been hired as a flight attendant for Iran Air and was cutting the cake for a friend’s birthday party.
On April 11, 2024, Reddit user u/Technical_Ad_4299 a picture of a person in a small clothing cutting a cake. The message read, “Lady in Tehran, Iran, cutting a slice of cake in 1973 for her birthday. The article was later deleted because it allegedly violated a post principle that prevented it from sticking to its theme of being extraordinarily exciting. Nevertheless, by that stage, it had already racked up lots of posts.
Snopes had recently spoken with a woman who claimed to be one of the picture’s kids. This is the trip we took to discover the meaning of the image.
Children’s Dress Code in Iran
A Facebook user previously posted the same photo with the message “Here is an image from Iran cutting her day bread in 1973, five years before the Islamic Revolution it.” Only wanted to point out how things can change when the state adopts a spiritual bent.”
According to users who commented on the picture, the person’s visible pleasure and the liberty to wear the clothes she’s dressed in portrayed a striking contrast to the government’s present-day reality.
The U. S. Data from the Institute of Peace about how contemporary dress code regulations and other unfair guidelines specifically target women in Iran, especially in the wake of the 1979 Revolution. For instance, the Iranian Institute of Peace reaffirmed that “all females [in Iran] are required to cover their hair and dress modestly starting in puberty.”
A Good Lead
One of the earliest comments of the image of the girl appeared to be from June 24, 2018, according to the opposite picture search website, which also appeared on Reddit. The older showed the caption,” Woman cutting her birthday cake in Tehran, Iran 1973. ”
We later discovered what appeared to be a useful comment in a different Reddit thread from December. 22, 2020. In a repost on r/OldSchoolCool, Reddit user u/notbob1959 with information about a Pinterest board:
This image was created from a Pinterest board, which also contains a few other images of this woman and her parents. The board’s title reads” My Mother in Iran- Inspirational pictures of my mother from the 1960s,” but it doesn’t state whether the photo was posted was for her birthday or something else.
“The Pinterest board had the title,” “as the Reddit comment stated. We reached out to the user of the picture to request more information.”
Her Name Is Sima
In 2022, the Pinterest user, Sogol Hariri, told Snopes she is the daughter of the woman in the picture. She explained that the photo was taken in 1971 rather than 1973, and that it showed her mother, Sima, who was 18 years old when she was first hired as a flight attendant for Iran Air. She told us that Sima was cutting the cake in the picture for a colleague’s birthday, not her own celebration.
Hariri claimed via email that her mother recalls the photo’s “very vivid” moment:
Let me start by clarifying that the photo was taken in 1971 in Tehran, Iran and she is in fact Iranian! My mother was born in Tehran in 1953, and this photo was taken when she was just 18 years old. She was born Sima, and she was born and raised in Tehran. She eventually wed and had all three of her children there. We all currently reside in Canada.
She has just begun her training and is very vividly aware of the context of the photo because she had just been hired as a flight attendant for Iran Air and had just begun her training. She was given the honor of cutting the airline’s birthday cake by one of her new coworkers. One of her coworkers encouraged her to start a modeling career at Iran Air, and she did so while she was still employed there. I have a photo of her before one of her flights and a few of her modeling photos with various poses. She describes this time in her life as very exciting and glamorous! I have always enjoyed looking at her photos from that time, which eventually led me to casually share them on Pinterest. There is only one family photo that was taken in the 1960s, and all of the others were taken in the 1970s, despite my initial comment on Pinterest that she said it was done in the 1960s.
Hariri’s mother and her modeling career were shared in a number of photos. Additionally, she included a high-resolution version of the original photo and a photo of Hariri holding the original print of her mother as she cut the cake:
Sima is employed by Iran Air as a flight attendant.
Sima’s modeling career includes a runway show.
Sima’s modeling career includes a runway show.
Sima’s modeling career includes a runway show.
Sima is seated in a room filled with famous models.
The original photo print shows Sima cutting her coworker’s cake in Tehran in 1971.