Visual Symbols as a Tool of Cultural and Environmental Resistance : The Example of the Movement “Sakkar Al-Siyap” (Close the Siape) of Sfax-Tunisia

Visual Symbols as a Tool of Cultural and Environmental Resistance: The Example of the Movement “Sakkar Al-Siyap” (Close the Siape) of Sfax-Tunisia

Bouthaina Bouallegui^1*, Moncef Gubsi², Ali Elloumi³

^1,2Arabic Maghreb Laboratory: Umrane Plural University of Sfax – Tunisia, Faculty of Letters and Human Science of Sfax

³laridiame Laboratory : University of Sfax – Tunisia, Faculty of Letters and Human Science of Sfax

^*Corresponding author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.906000221

Received: 20 May 2025; Accepted: 24 May 2025; Published: 08 July 2025

ABSTRACT

In the context of the rise of environmental movements and the intensification of popular demonstrations against industrial pollution, visual stimuli have become a central element in expressing disagreement and demanding ecological justice. In this context, this article focuses on the analysis of visual symbols within the Sfax movement as an expression of environmental injustice and a mechanism for stimulating collective consciousness. This article is based on social semiotics and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power to deconstruct the relationship between the signifier and the social and political signified, showing how resistance is embodied through the image because it is loaded with deep cultural connotations and anchored in the context. In this context, the visual symbol is not only seen but also felt as an act of resistance.

Keywords: visual symbols, cultural resistance, social semiotics, symbolic power, symbolic authority, environmental injustice.

INTRODUCTION

In environmental movements, visual symbols appear as effective tools of resistance that transcend the limits of verbal language to become a visual act loaded with meanings and connotations, because the symbol is not only an image or an aesthetic visual form but a bearer of profound messages that translate the suffering of peoples and embody their resistance against environmental and cultural injustice. In this context, visual symbols are an essential tool to denounce environmental violations and a means of expressing cultural identity because they are not only seen but also read and interpreted in the light of their social and political context. The study of visual symbols is therefore an essential sociological entry point to understand the mechanisms of formation of environmental movements and their modes of action in the social space, in particular those who use culture and the environment as a platform of resistance against models of domination and marginalization.

This article examines the “sakkar al-siyap” movement in Sfax, and more specifically its visual slogan “Yazi takhnakna,” as a living example of how visual symbols can be used to resist environmental injustice. We use social semiotics as a theoretical framework to analyze the way symbols and signs work in the social fabric and understand their meanings in the cultural contexts that produced them. We also rely on Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power to decipher the deep dimensions that control the circulation of symbols and the way they are transformed into tools of resistance within the social space. The question we are trying to answer is the following: how can visual symbols be a tool of environmental and cultural resistance, and how do they contribute to denouncing environmental injustice?

The question of our study consists in understanding the role of visual stimuli used in the “Sakkar al-Siyap” movement from a socio-semiotic point of view and how visual symbols become an engine of cultural and environmental resistance. The study starts from the following question : “How are visual stimuli used in environmental movements as an engine of cultural resistance ? How does the visual symbol contribute to denouncing environmental injustice ? If every symbol has a signifier and a signified, what is the relationship between the visual form of the symbol (the signifier) and the cultural and social meanings that it carries (the signified)? To what extent can this interaction between the signifier and the signified be considered as a key to understanding the ability of visual symbols to fulfill a function of protest and resistance in crisis contexts ?

This study aims to test the following hypotheses :

1. The more a visual symbol is not loaded with deep cultural and social connotations, the more it has the power to denounce environmental injustices.
2. The wider the interactive relationship between the signifier and the signified is in the visual symbol, the more powerful the visual form becomes to evoke the social and political meanings linked to the cultural context, transforming the symbol into an effective tool of resistance against environmental and cultural hegemony.

The objectives of this study are 1) to understand the role of the visual symbol in the resistance to symbolic and cultural hegemony. 2) Reveal how visual stimuli can be used to denounce environmental injustices. 3) Study the relationship between the visual form of the symbol (the signifier) and the cultural and political meanings that it reflects.

Theoretical approach

For non-specialists, visual sociology is often reduced to the sociology of the visible (SIROIS, 2023), but sociologists have proven that sociological semiotics is not limited to the interpretation of symbols but seeks to relate these symbols to the social and historical field that produced them, which makes it an effective tool for understanding the social order, whether in its reproduction or in its opposition. In this context, symbols become militant tools that express society’s protest against environmental pollution and demonstrate its resistance to current policies. Thus, social semiotics reinforces the role of symbols in the reproduction or questioning of the social order, which makes them an essential element in shaping the identity of the protest movement and directing it towards achieving tangible change.

By infusing it with new concepts such as social structure and interpretation, sociological semiotics can not only construct images and signs that are interconnected to form a model of signs but also relate this model to the socio-historical field that produced it (BOUAZIZI, 2010). More than a theory, social semiotics is a method of collective investigation on the meanings given to images, because social semiotics seeks to study the interaction between the materiality of signs and the social context of perception and reception (LE BERRE and CHAILLEUX, 2021. DENEUVILLE, 2024). Thus, semiotics seems to be more than the ambition of a theoretical project for the study of meaning; it seems to be an attempt to establish a new signifier after having transformed the entire vocabulary of the world into signs, and each sign can refer to a meaning (AL-SHARKAWI 2023).

Semiotics, as introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce, is an approach to understanding signs as communication systems that produce meanings in specific social contexts. De Saussure’s semiotics is based on a set of pillars, the most important of which is the duality of structure and meaning, in the sense that a word consists of two faces: the signifier “Signifier” (physical form), that is to say the phonetic image of the noun, and the second face is the signified “Signified” (meaning), that is to say the mental image and the relationship between the signifier and the signified. The relationship between the two faces is arbitrary (DE SAUSSURE, 1985), and since the signifier and the signified are inseparable, the existence of one depends on the existence of the other (AL-FATTAH, 2010); the relationship between the signifier and the signified is a relationship that establishes a perception that governs vision according to correlation (AL-OUMAIRI, 2015). This allows us to analyze the slogan (“Yazzi takhnakna” (muffled)) of the environmental protest movement “Sakkar al-Siyap” as an expressive sign that combines the textual form with deep meanings related to the suffering of the population. Beyond its literal meaning, this slogan becomes a militant symbol that reflects the reality of society and expresses its protest against environmental pollution, reinforcing its impact as an effective tool to crystallize the identity of the movement and direct it towards achieving tangible change.

According to Bourdieu, those who exercise this authority must be able to articulate their intentions and convince others of their ideas using appropriate linguistic and rhetorical techniques. By influencing people’s minds, their perception of the world and the relationships it maintains changes, which is reflected in their behavior and ultimately leads to influencing the social world and orienting it in a direction that serves the interests of those who produce and promote the discourse (BOUBIRI, 2023; RESERVE, 2024; HASIAK and JUSTE,2021). Thus, what makes symbolic power effective is that individuals voluntarily accept it because it seems natural and justified when in reality it serves to reproduce the existing social order. Symbolic power is therefore not only a communication process but also a mechanism for influencing individuals’ perceptions and behaviors through the construction of discourses and semantic frameworks that seem neutral or objective. It is all the more effective if it is based on the participation of individuals themselves in the establishment of values and norms that may serve certain interests without them being fully aware of it. Bourdieu thus underlines the importance of the analysis of discourses and symbols as key.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

The study is qualitative in nature. John Creswell believes that the researcher in a qualitative approach “is a data collection tool that gathers words or images and analyzes them in an inductive way, which allows him to focus on the nature of the participants and describe the process in an expressive and convincing way” (CRESWELL, 1988). It is within this framework that our research, in which we have chosen understanding as a methodology, seeks to understand the behavior of the actors of the “Sakkar al-Siyap” movement, highlighting how visual symbols have been used to reframe the discourse of resistance and create broad community solidarity. What makes symbolic power effective is its voluntary acceptance by individuals, because it seems natural and justified, when in reality it works to reproduce the existing social order. Symbolic power is invisible and can only be exercised with the complicity of those who refuse to admit that they are subject to it and even practice it according to its rules (BOURDIEU, 2007). Symbolic power is therefore not only a communication process but also a mechanism for influencing individuals’ perceptions and behaviors through the construction of discourses and semantic frameworks that appear neutral or objective. It is all the more effective if it is based on the participation of individuals themselves in the establishment of values and norms that may serve certain interests without them being fully aware of it

Field of research

Sfax is located between the coast and the south of Tunisia and is bordered to the east by the Mediterranean Sea, to the north by the state of Mahdia, to the west by the states of Sidi Bouzid and Kairouan, and to the south by the state of Gabes. Its area is 7,545 km, or 4.6% of the total area of the country, and it is inhabited by 999,275 inhabitants according to 2018 estimates from the National Statistics Institute, while the population density is about 1,324 inhabitants/km². Several oil and natural gas fields are scattered in several areas of Sfax, as well as a large phosphate refining plant in Gafsa and phosphoric acid production (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Study area Sfax Governorate- Tunisia

Source: Field research

The research tools

The sociological approach is considered one of the most capable of revealing what an image is, whether in the field of language as a source of mental images or in the field of visual arts as visual sensory images. Given the predominance of the image in the human mind today, it was inevitable that a formalist school would emerge, which would take the image or the form as its title. As part of our research, we have relied on the following techniques :

The technique of semiotic analysis of images :

The semiotic analysis of images, or visual sociology, is a research technique and an analytical approach that focuses on the understanding of social phenomena through visual images and symbols. There is no doubt that understanding the meaning of an image or determining its meaning is one of the most difficult and confusing questions for most researchers. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the term image is one of the most ambiguous words due to the diversity of its meanings. It has been defined in the sociological field as a kind of sign, and a sign, in its simplest sense, is something material, reminiscent of something moral (MUSTAFA, 2011). This justifies the use of the semiotic analysis technique, which, in our opinion, is very suitable for the study of protests and activist symbols such as the slogans of the “Sakkar al-Siyap” movement. This technique will help us to read several visual conceptions, such as the “takhnakna” conception adopted by the protesters of the “Sakkar al-Siyap” movement.

Table 01: The semiotic analysis of the visual symbols of the “Sakkar al-Siyap” movement.

We can see from the painting that visual conceptions, despite their simplicity, carry many meanings; hence the importance of using simple symbols and adopting expressive simplicity to penetrate the depth of feelings and evoke feelings of fear of the present and fear of the future.

Semi-directive interview

The interview is one of the most effective methodological tools for investigating and collecting data due to its flexibility. This is a “direct technique used to interview individuals individually and, in some cases, groups in a semi-guided way” (ANGERS, 1997). For example, our central question on the importance of visual symbols as an engine of cultural and environmental resistance has been divided into sub-questions, the first being the role of the symbol in exposing environmental injustice and the second the relationship between the form of the visual symbol (the signifier) and the cultural and social meanings (the signified) it carries, and how this relationship contributes to the context of resistance, which is part of the process of creating the interview guide. Below we present an example of an analysis of the transcripts of the interviews used in our study.

Table 2: Interview analysis grid Related table

Table 3: Extraction of maintenance certificates

Study population

We have selected five respondents divided according to the following table :

Table 4: Representativeness of the sample in the “Sakkar al-Siyap” movement

The research sample was purposefully selected and included the most important actors of the “Sakkar al-Siyap” movement. The table shows the group of respondents participating in the Sakkar al-Siyap movement, indicating their age, profession, and the role they play in this movement. In terms of profession, the group includes retired professors, lawyers, and doctors. The age of the participants varies from 47 to 66 years. The roles are clearly divided between the movement’s management (general coordinator and spokesperson) and specialized aspects such as law and health, each person having a specific and important role that contributes to the success of the movement.

RESULTS

I- Visual stimuli as an engine of cultural and environmental resistance

The use of the shape of the factory chimney as a tool for expressing social and environmental concerns, and its materialization in the form of a rifle barrel, is not only a physical representation but also a way to convey a serious message about the environmental consequences that threaten society. The analogy between the factory chimney and the barrel of a rifle gives the issue a moral character that places pollution in the context of collective responsibility. It shows that the inhabitants not only oppose the plant as a polluter but also as a symbol of the violation of their fundamental rights to live in a healthy and sustainable environment. In doing so, visual symbols become a tool for promoting cultural resistance that rejects this official narrative and demands environmental justice, seeking to transform culture into a tool for political change (CASTELLS, 2017). In this image, symbolic violence is used against exploitative regimes, helping to push the movement towards environmental and social justice. The image of the factory chimney in the form of a rifle barrel is not only a representation of environmental pollution but also a symbol of cultural resistance that seeks to change the social and political realities associated with environmental conflicts. Thanks to this visual symbolism, society becomes aware of the relationship between pollution and power, which stimulates the participation and mobilization of the masses against the regimes that contribute to the destruction of the environment. The images, whether monstrous or discreet, striking or hypnotic, manual or automatic, static or moving, in black and white or in color, silent or spoken, exert an action and provoke a reaction. (BOUALLEGUI & al., 2025). Visual symbols become an effective tool of resistance by creating a collective consciousness that encourages individuals to act and participate in the achievement of environmental justice. This indicates that the symbols are not limited to the expression of environmental suffering, but that they have become an effective way to express the rejection of policies that threaten the rights of residents. (BOUALLEGUI & al., 2025).

Visual symbols are a powerful tool in environmental protest movements, as they allow complex messages to be communicated quickly and effectively to denounce injustice and to alert the public to social and environmental problems. In the context of the “Sakkar Al-Siyap” movement, the visual symbol is used not only to communicate the idea of environmental pollution but also to show the environmental and social injustice suffered by the local community. Through symbolic images, the painful reality is materialized, and the visual symbol becomes a tool of protest that exposes oppressive practices that cause damage to the environment and society. Thanks to visual symbols representing the factory’s chimney like the barrel of a rifle, the factory goes from being an industrial entity to being a tool of oppression that attacks the environment and society. This symbol reflects the environmental violence exerted by large companies against nature and human health. The visual image of the factory chimney, which resembles the barrel of a rifle, symbolizes the growing threat of industrial pollution. The smoke that rises from the chimney is used in this image to imitate the ammunition that comes out of the barrel of a rifle, which reinforces the idea that the factory is not limited to production but has become an instrument of environmental destruction. In this context, Respondent 3 explained :

“The image is a direct tool to expose the criminal responsibility of the factory. “

He added in the same context :

“When the chimney is represented as a gun barrel, it becomes obvious that the pollution is not accidental, but rather an organized crime against the environment and the population. “

He stated in the same context (5) :

“This image revealed environmental injustice in a shocking way, which allowed the public to consider the plant as a common enemy.

These statements show that visual stimuli are not only a means of expression but also a powerful tool to frame and guide public discourse. By representing the chimney as the barrel of a gun, we reframe the relationship between the inhabitants and the factory, moving from an industrial presence to an existential threat, which triggers collective action and encourages individuals to unite against the source of the danger. The image thus becomes a militant symbol that mixes social criticism with a call for change in environmental policy.

The chimney in the shape of a rifle barrel represents the economic and industrial power used against society, so that the symbol becomes an exhibition of this power and a catalyst for political resistance.

Interviewee 2 said :

“The fireplace, which resembles the barrel of a rifle, eloquently expresses the relationship between capital and power. It symbolizes a power that is used against people and not for them. Industry is no longer just a means of production, but a means of enslavement”.

 This symbol highlights the relationship between large companies and the regimes in place, and reveals the power of repression of factories against the environment and society.

In the same context, Respondent 3 adds :

“When I see the chimney, I don’t see it as a pipe that exhales smoke, I see it as a threatening machine. It is used to perpetuate the power of companies over people and the environment, as if they were forcing us to keep quiet”.

This symbol highlights the relationship between large companies and the regimes in place and reveals the power of repression of factories against the environment and society. Visual symbols, in particular those that derive their power from symbolic violence, reshape the social narrative that presents large companies as engines of development and prosperity. Through images that show industrial pollution as a direct threat, the environment is presented as the victim of an unequal struggle between economic and environmental forces.

The signifier and the signified in the visual symbol :

1- The visual signifier :

As for the image (01) of the child wearing a mask, it is one of the most powerful visual images used by the “Sakar al-Sayyab” movement. The child is a symbol of innocence and hope, and the mask is proof of the direct threat that pollution poses to public health. The presence of the child in the mask conveys a clear and direct message about the seriousness of environmental pollution and its impact on the most vulnerable groups in society.

The respondent (5) noted

“The use of symbols, such as the child choking, has helped unite the protesters around the issue of pollution, because this symbol has become a direct tool to show the threat to everyone, especially to future generations.

The presence of a child in a mask sends a direct and poignant message: environmental pollution has become a daily danger that threatens everyone, starting with the most vulnerable groups, such as children, who are considered the future of society.

One respondent(3) points out that :

“The child wearing a mask in the image is a clear message, environmental pollution is not only an environmental problem, it is a violation of human rights. »

In the same context, Respondent 1 adds :

“In the image of the child wearing a mask, we see the whole future trapped. This image is not only a protest, it is a cry for a better life”.

This visual representation not only emphasizes the aggressive dimension of pollution but also allows protest movements to use the symbol to build a global narrative of resistance, showing pollution as a direct enemy of society, thus strengthening the power of demands and increasing their impact in the public sphere. The visual symbol of the image (02), the image of the factory in the form of a rifle, is a visual element loaded with a number of deep connotations that go beyond the direct meaning. Through this image, it is clear that the factory is simulating direct violence against the environment. This visual form implies the transition from an industrial object to a threatening and destructive tool, because factories that have long been symbols of industrial development and economic growth are now becoming symbols of destruction and risk.

One respondent(3) points out that :

“The child wearing a mask in the image is a clear message, environmental pollution is not only an environmental problem, it is a violation of human rights. »

In the same context, Respondent 1 adds :

“In the image of the child wearing a mask, we see the whole future trapped. This image is not only a protest, it is a cry for a better life”.

The smoke from the factory is an important visual representation. By comparing the smoke to bullets coming from the barrel of a gun, we reinforce the idea that the environmental pollution caused by these factories is not only a negative impact on the environment but also a serial environmental violence that leads to direct damage to public health, a kind of aggression against life and the existence of the environment.

In this context, the defendant (2) :

“The rifle is a universal symbol of violence and, when associated with the factory, it explicitly condemns institutions that exploit the environment without worrying about the consequences. »

This image makes pollution an attack on society, just as a gun attacks a victim, redefining environmental pollution as an act of aggression that must be confronted. The analogy between smoke and bullets suggests that pollution is not only an environmental problem but also violence directed against the individuals and communities exposed to it. Lead poses the deadly threat, giving the public the impression that this type of pollution can have devastating long-term effects.

2- The social and political significance :

The socio-political importance of the photo of number 01, The Child in the Mask, lies in the strong message it conveys about the permanent environmental threat and its impact on future generations. On a social level, the image highlights the most vulnerable members of society, children, who represent the future, and underlines everyone’s responsibility to protect future generations from the dangers of pollution.

The respondent (4) stated the following :

“The choice of a child moralizes the demands, makes them more urgent in the eyes of the public and those responsible, and highlights pollution as a problem that cannot be ignored. “

In terms of the political dimension, this image is a direct call to action against pollution, highlighting the need for the state and institutions to intervene in the treatment of this environmental problem that negatively affects the lives of citizens. By associating pollution with the child, we are moving from an environmental issue to a human rights and moral issue, which encourages the community to demand a change in current policies.

Mentioned (1)

“This symbol moralizes the demands, makes the issue more urgent in the eyes of public opinion and those responsible, and highlights pollution as an organized crime against the environment and human beings. “

The image therefore represents not only an environmental threat but also a social crisis that requires a rapid political response, highlighting the deep interaction between the social and political dimensions of this issue. As for the socio-political significance, in image 02, the image of the factory in the form of a rifle directly refers to the social injustice caused by large industries. In modern societies, factories are often considered as sources of economic growth and employment, but in this context, the visual symbol shows that factories are not only responsible for environmental pollution but also contribute to social injustice. The factory, which seems to point the barrel of a rifle at society, reinforces the feeling of being constantly threatened by the permanent exploitation of the environment. For some, the idea of economic development represented by factories becomes an illusion that masks the environmental damage that affects not only the earth or the environment, but also individuals and society.

In this context, the respondent (2) told us :

“The analogy of the chimney with the barrel of a rifle is very correct, because it reflects a physical reality in which hides a structural violence exerted by industry on nature and human beings in the name of development. “

In the same vein, Defendant 5 stated :

“What the chimney does to the air is like what a rifle does to the body. We are facing a pollution that kills people like bullets in wars, but without the blood”.

The aggressiveness manifested by this symbol expresses the absolute contempt of the companies that own these factories for the risks to which citizens are exposed due to air, water, and ocean pollution. The symbol indicates that these big-budget companies have no regard for human rights, nor for the long-term damage caused to people’s health or the ecological identity of the region. At the end of this analysis, it is clear that visual symbols such as the image of the child in the mask and the image of the factory with the rifle carry strong social and political connotations that contribute to the collective identity of the Sakkr al-Siyap movement. These images go beyond the expression of environmental suffering to become a collective call to action against environmental and political injustice. Thanks to these symbols, the message is addressed directly to those responsible and to society, strengthening the power of environmental claims and catalyzing social and political change.

DISCUSSION

The results of this study support the first hypothesis, according to which the visual symbol within socio-environmental movements not only fulfills a communication function but goes beyond to become a tool of cultural and environmental resistance. This is demonstrated by the ability of the symbol to aggregate and condense the cultural and social baggage into a concise and meaningful visual image, as in the example of the “fireplace/rifle” or the “child in the mask,” where environmental injustices are condensed and translated into a direct visual form. This symbolic representation is in accordance with Pierre Bourdieu’s (2001) conceptualization of symbols as tools for the production of symbolic power, where the image becomes a discourse of resistance, reshaping the perceptions and consciousness of individuals with regard to issues of pollution and environmental justice. The demonstrators do not use the image as a transmission tool but rather as a mechanism for deconstructing and reconstructing reality, exercising a counter-discursive power against the “neutral” semantic frameworks proposed by the dominant institutions. In this sense, Bourdieu (2001) emphasizes that symbols and discourses are not innocent tools but mechanisms of influence and reproduction or resistance to hegemonic relations. The second hypothesis, which is based on a complex semiotic vision, finds its theoretical roots in the conceptualization of the linguistic sign by Ferdinand de Saussure (1985), based on the signifier/signified duality, where the meaning changes according to the cultural and social context. The study shows that the effectiveness of the protest image in the environmental context, as in the Sakkar al-Siyab movement, stems not only from its visual form but also from its ability to generate multiple and culturally charged meanings. The relationship between the fireplace as a “visual signifier” and the gun barrel as a “symbolic political signifier” represents a process of semantic modification that produces a symbolic resistance capable of expressing problems deeper than simple pollution: political and social asphyxiation and the loss of the right to citizenship and dignity. Thus, the meaning is not intrinsic to the image but is built in a dialectical relationship between the symbol and the collective memory, making the image a dynamic support open to collective interpretation.

Based on the foregoing, we can say that the results clearly support both Saussure’s semiotic argument on the opening of meaning through the relationship between the signifier and the signified and Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power (2001), where the visual symbol acts as a field of conflict in which meaning is reproduced and power is distributed in the public space of protest.  Despite the semantic density of visual symbols, which makes them distinctive tools to express cultural and environmental resistance, their effectiveness remains conditioned by the contexts in which they are produced and received, which makes them vulnerable to a number of challenges. The first of these challenges concerns their susceptibility to multiple interpretations, because the symbols do not refer to a fixed meaning but rather open the door to different interpretations that can distort their original intention. In this context, Roland Barthes emphasizes that “myth is a depoliticized discourse” (BARTHES, 1957: 12), which means that a symbolic image can become a depoliticized discourse if it is reproduced in other cultural contexts. Pierre Bourdieu, in his analysis of acts of symbolic consumption, emphasizes that “cultural consumption is an act of social differentiation” (BOURDIEU, 1979: 21), which indicates that visual symbols, when invested by dominant groups, can lose their protest function and be used as a decorative or fashion tool in what is called symbolic dilution. This shift in symbolic function is exacerbated when power or the market intervenes to absorb resistant symbols in their promotional strategies, a mechanism analyzed by Michel de Certeau, who distinguishes “the strategies of the powerful and the tactics of the weak,” asserting that “strategies are the calculations of the powerful, while tactics are the tricks of the weak” (DE CERTEAU, 1980: 32). Even in the absence of direct promotional intentions, the symbol is always likely to be misunderstood due to the different interpretative skills of the recipients. According to Umberto Eco, “the work is open because it gives the reader freedom of interpretation” (ECO, 1965: 56), which means that a symbolic message can be read in a contradictory way, which weakens its impact or diverts it from the resistant context in which it was created. The effectiveness of visual symbols, therefore, does not lie in their very nature but in their ability to retain their meaning within the circulation and in the awareness that social actors have of the strategies of their production and their orientation in the cultural and political fields. Only this awareness can protect them from being overlooked and appropriated and guarantee that they remain within the horizon of collective action and social criticism.

CONCLUSION

This study clearly shows that visual symbols are no longer only tools of communication or aesthetic expression but that they have become a key player in the elaboration of the discourse of cultural and environmental resistance. The case study on the Sakkar al-Siyap showed that an image can become a powerful language of protest, transcending words and denouncing environmental injustice. The hypotheses adopted have shown that the power of the visual symbol is linked to the depth of its meanings, because the form (the signifier) crosses the cultural and political meaning in a space loaded with conflicts. Thanks to the tools of sociological semiotics, symbols not only act as a mirror of reality but also reproduce it. The understanding of these symbols is inseparable from the understanding of the social structure that produced them and from the awareness of the actors who use them as tools for symbolic negotiation in a field of tension between power and society.

This analysis highlights the fact that environmental activism is no longer limited to the language of data and technical requirements but that it is increasingly relying on the symbolic and visual dimension to shock, stimulate awareness, and create a sense of collective belonging around local and global environmental issues. As we have seen, the image has the power to transcend linguistic and bureaucratic barriers to have a direct impact on the addressee, giving environmental movements an effective and easily disseminable mobilization tool, especially in the age of digital media. These symbols also show how an environmental activist can go from being a simple transmitter of suffering to a producer of meaning by exploiting the image as a political discourse, a sphere of cultural influence, and a tool for demanding climate and environmental justice.

As such, this study paves the way for reflection on the new roles that images and visual symbols can play in social movements, in particular in the context of environmental activism, where they are used as effective means of constructing alternative and influential narratives. This study suggests promising research possibilities, in particular. Analyze the impact of digital media on the dissemination and transformation of visual symbols into mass mobilization tools. Explore how environmental symbols are reassigned in official or commercial discourse and how their original meanings are contained or distorted. With this approach, we have paved the way for a deeper understanding of the visual symbol as a central element of contemporary resistance practices and a cultural actor that reshapes the relationship between society and power in times of escalating environmental crises.

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