Iranian exiles across North America rally for strikes; others march against war

Jubilant Iranian-Americans on Saturday took to the streets from Boston to Los Angeles to cheer the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and voice hope for a brighter future for their homeland.

In Los Angeles, home to a massive Iranian diaspora, singing and ululating marchers carried flags of shah-era Iran and posters bearing US President Donald Trump’s image, with some wearing shirts that said “Free Iran.”

Trump announced Saturday that the strikes had killed Khamenei — and Iranian state television confirmed the news hours later — though some marches started earlier in the day.

“It’s mixed feelings,” Fartach Razmjoo told AFP at a gathering in Canada’s largest city, Toronto.

“It seems this brutal regime is going to be gone, but at the same time, I am very concerned about the people in Iran.”

Razmjoo said he hoped the “people in Iran now get the courage to get in the street and try to overthrow” the government.

Trump made similar calls, urging Iranians to rise up and “take over your government.”

But at an anti-war protest in New York, people expressed skepticism about the strikes, which Trump has vowed to continue “as long as necessary.”

Layan Fuleihan, a 36-year-old activist, told AFP: “Bombing people does not help them free themselves.”

“If Trump cared about democracy or if he cared about the well-being of Iranian people, he would have lifted the brutal sanctions on the Iranian economy that have made it impossible for everyday working Iranians to find enough to put food on their table,” she said.

Brent Gray, a 27-year-old engineer in the US capital, Washington, said Trump was “taking military action without any congressional approval.”

Anti-war activist group ANSWER called for nationwide demonstrations on Monday, denouncing “an unprovoked, illegal war.”

Very complicated feelings

The scene couldn’t have been more different in Boston, where people sang and stomped on an Iranian flag in the street, while waving American flags and at least one Israeli flag.

“Iranians can finally get to live the free life that they want,” Navid Aghasadeghi told AFP.

“We don’t call it a war. We call it the Iran Rescue Operation,” said Sherry Yadegari, a 42-year-old artist in the southern city of Atlanta.

Azi Adibi, 45, also in Atlanta, said she was worried about family in Iran, having been unable to reach her brother since “the internet got cut off.”

Roozbeh Farahanipour, a restaurant owner in Los Angeles’s Westwood neighborhood — sometimes known as “Tehrangeles” or Little Persia — told AFP he has “very complicated feelings.”

“I saw the footage of people dancing in the streets,” the 54-year-old said. “That reminded me of the first days of the war in Iraq. At the time, the people of Iraq were also dancing in the streets.”

“I hope the scenario will be different this time,” he said.