Local Iranian community rallies in support of U.S., Israel strikes

Iranians — some with tears in their eyes — danced in the streets of Winnipeg Saturday as news broke that the U.S. and Israel launched a major attack overnight, killing the leader of the Islamic regime who has ruled over their home country for decades.

“All the Iranian diaspora and people inside Iran were waiting for this to happen,” said Shervin Shahidian, an Iranian-born man now living in the Manitoba capital.

“I was shaking here, and I was so happy actually for them. They are very hopeful that this is it, that this is going to be the end of this regime and finally they are going to be free and living freely.”

Shahidian described a sleepless night spent waiting for word from his friends and relatives in Iran, who last made contact with him around 3 a.m. after missiles struck key targets associated with the Islamic Republic government.

U.S. President Donald Trump said those strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, although his death was not immediately confirmed by Iran.

Trump called on the Iranian public to rise up against the Islamic leadership that has ruled the nation since 1979, urging them to “seize control of your destiny” following the barrage of military strikes.

The action follows at least two months of escalating protests that saw tens of thousands of Iranians take to the streets since Dec. 28, risking their lives in the nation’s largest uprising since the Islamic regime took hold.

The Canadian government has issued a statement of support for the attack, saying it will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and stop its regime from further threatening international peace and security.

That message from Prime Minister Mark Carney was welcomed by Shahidian, who said he has watched from afar as Iran fell further into tyranny over the past several decades.

“Through the years, nothing got better. Every year passed by and the people were suffering more and more,” he said.

“My dream and my hope is that this regime finally can be gone from our country and the people can get over to the government and rule themselves, and then we, all from the diaspora, can go back and live peacefully.”

He and more than a dozen other members of Manitoba’s Iranian community rallied outside Polo Park around 1 p.m., where they played music, chanted and danced in celebration.

Tears welled in Zhaleh Parsaei’s eyes as she described mixed feelings of hope, excitement and fear in the wake of the military action.

“Since last night I cried several times. I just couldn’t stop my tears,” she said. “We didn’t sleep at all last night. We were just watching the news. We were talking to people, like to my family, cousins, they had internet at first. They were already so happy.”

Parsaei moved to Canada permanently in 2015, after spending 30 years in Iran. She said she fears for the safety of her family, but she hopes the people of Iran heed Trump’s call and take to the streets to overthrow the Islamic regime.

“I worked there, I studied there and I am a woman, so I understand the pain there,” she said. “This is a hell for Iranian people.”

She said she does not see the military attack as an act of war, but rather one of liberation.

“We are grateful for leaders like President Trump. I know many people maybe don’t like him, but he’s the only leader who stands with Iranian people and he knows that this regime is not just a threat for Iranian people, but a threat for the whole world,” she said.

Her husband, Mojtaba Montazeri, said the same.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Biidaajimowin | News from the Centre

Wednesdays

Sent weekly from the heart of Turtle Island, an exploration of Indigenous voices, perspectives and experiences.

Sign up for Biidaajimowin | News from the Centre

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

“President Trump is a man of his word,” Montazeri said.

Organizing the local rally was a critical display of solidarity for the people of Iran, whose communication with the outside world is frequently limited by internet blackouts, Shahidian said.

“The people of Iran are going to remember what we did here in the international community (and whether) we have been their voice or not,” he said. “It means a lot to the freedom and the liberation of the Iranian people back home.”

The group spent just under one hour at Polo Park, before forming a convoy with their vehicles and driving westbound on Portage Avenue to the Costco Wholesale.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.