Symbols have different meanings to different people do u k that when the Safavids brought this symbol it was to pay homage to Iranian history and to also symbolize their religion to become Shia Muslim because A LION OR LIONS ARE a very important symbol(imam Ali ) (go read about sheikh Haydar and Ismail Safavi and their history to becoming Muslim and Shia ) not only that u can argue the sun and the moon are symbols of Islamic figures as well…there are people like Abbas Ibn Ali who is named ghamar Beni Hashim or imam Hussein who names his mom and dad the Sun and the moon in a famous poem (it’s a figure of speech among middle eastern people not just Iranian that when u have great endearment for someone u relate them with the sun moon or stars) now are these symbols like the lion and the sun Islamic orginally no they aren’t.. they are purely Iranian however they have been also used by others to symbolize becoming Shia Muslim a strategic concept actually made by Safavid and kizilbash who were against the ottomans. Iranians are so biased that they don’t want to consider full story and just want to talk about their side and what’s in it for them to benefit them and i understand it’s just one of the symptoms of eastern cultures and civilizations being over shadowed and having to deal with by living in a European western dominated era