  We argue that the $q$-deformed spin-1 AKLT Hamiltonian should be regarded as
a representative of a symmetry protected topological phase. Even though it
fails to exhibit any of the standard symmetries known to protect the Haldane
phase it still displays all characteristics of this phase: Fractionalized
spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ boundary spins, non-trivial string order and - when using an
appropriate definition - a two-fold degeneracy in the entanglement spectrum. We
trace these properties back to the existence of an $SO_q(3)$ quantum group
symmetry and speculate about potential links to discrete duality symmetries. We
expect our findings and methods to be relevant for the identification,
characterization and classification of other symmetry-protected topological
phases with non-standard symmetries.
