Hundreds Gather to Protest Foreign Attacks

Ultimately, the reason many Iranians are expressing happiness is the belief that the era of "absolute guardianship" has finally reached its terminal point. For nearly forty years, one man's word was law, and that law often translated into the imprisonment of activists, the execution of dissidents, and the systematic marginalization of women and minorities. The celebrations represent a collective "no" to the continuation of that legacy. While the road ahead is fraught with the danger of a power vacuum or a military coup, the immediate reaction of the people is a powerful affirmation of their desire for change. They are cheering for the possibility of a country where the government fears the people, rather than the people fearing the government, marking this as perhaps the most significant turning point in modern Iranian history.