Days after the start of Israeli-American strikes against Iran, some Iranian students are celebrating military action against the country.
Air strikes started on Saturday local time, hitting numerous locations, including several in Tehran, Iran’s capital. These come after the United States built up its largest military deployment in the Middle East in decades.
Sogand Golshahian, an Iranian democracy advocate and UBC student, hailed the foreign intervention in Iran. She told The Ubyssey that the Islamic Republic of Iran — the country's current government since the 1979 revolution — needs to be toppled.
Golshahian said that many in the diaspora were “ecstatic” upon hearing that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed. “People are very happy,” she said. “[After] 37 years of torture and killing … he's gone.”
While she hoped he could have been brought to trial, she said she was glad “he doesn't exist anymore.”
Golshahian said that strikes against Iran and the leaders of the current regime should continue until the Islamic Republic of Iran is toppled. Calling for the return of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, she said that he was necessary to transform the country into a secular democracy.
“I'm confident in him being a great leader,” she said. “We are hoping to look for the day, hopefully in two, three weeks, where our king comes back to Iran and we can all celebrate the Nowruz,” referring to the Persian New Year’s Day.
Through the 1970s, Iran faced scrutiny in the Western world for human rights abuses committed by the last shah's secret police force, known as SAVAK. Reports alleged that thousands were arrested as political prisoners and hundreds died in detention.
However, the fate of the country is still uncertain. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s calls for Iranians to overthrow their government and for soldiers to lay down their arms, experts say that such a shift would have to pass several barriers.
On Sunday, U.S. intelligence officials told Reuters that it was “far from likely” the Islamic Republic of Iran will fall after Khamenei’s death. One official noted that officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — a paramilitary force responsible for defending Iran’s government — are unlikely to turn against the current government.
Additional sources told Reuters that such defections would be needed to guarantee a successful revolution.
The same day, state media outlet Press TV posted on X that an interim leadership council has already been formed, taking over the duties of the supreme leader until the Assembly of Experts chooses a new head of state.
Protests against the regime preceded military action
On Friday afternoon, hours before the attacks, demonstrators gathered outside the UBC bookstore, waving Iranian opposition flags and chanting for political change in Iran.
This rally was one of many held in Vancouver since protests started in Iran in December. In January, UBC Persian Club held a demonstration on campus alongside 16 other Iranian student organizations across Canada, calling for solidarity with the anti-government protestors in the country. The Ubyssey reached out to the UBC Persian Club for comment on this article, but received no response.
Friday’s rally was organized by the Iranian Students in Vancouver group, an independent collective separate from the UBC Persian Club. Unlike campus-based cultural clubs, the group brings together students and community members from institutions across the region, including UBC, SFU and Capilano University, as well as other community organizations in Metro Vancouver.
Organizers said the demonstration was part of a broader global movement calling for the end of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the restoration of a monarchy under Pahlavi.
“Regime change [is] what we’re protesting [for],” said Golshahian, one of the protests’ organizers. “We want our shah to come back — King Reza Pahlavi is his name — and we essentially want freedom.”
The demonstrators were echoing chants heard in Iran, including “Javid shah,” meaning ‘long live the shah’ in Farsi. Golshahian said that protesters in Iran are facing lethal consequences for expressing support for the former monarchy and opposing the current regime.
In 2024, Amnesty International, a leading human rights organization, accused Iran of arbitrary executions, systemic discrimination and violence against women and minority groups, and the torture of prisoners. Numerous other human rights groups and governments have condemned the government’s repression of peaceful protest and political dissent.
Ilia Nasseri, a Langara College student who attended the protest, said his decision to demonstrate stems from his lived experience in Iran. He described growing up feeling silenced from a young age, an experience that ultimately influenced his decision to leave the country.
He said he has seen family members “die in this regime.”
“I want to come back to an Iran where I can feel free, and I'm not alone. You see around the world, they chant King Reza Pahlavi, Javid shah — not just in Canada, but in Australia, in the U.K., in France and everywhere in the world,” said Nasseri.
Golshahian said tens of thousands of people have been killed in recent months following the unrest.
Independent verification of those figures remains difficult, as reporting from inside Iran is heavily restricted. According to The Guardian, potentially 30,000 protestors have been killed — far exceeding official figures. Doctors and morgue staff have described hundreds of people arriving at hospitals with close-range gunshot wounds and severe stab injuries.
Golshahian described Pahlavi as the only viable alternative to the current government.
“He’s the only alternative who has actually been working for the past 47 years for a day like this,” she said. “[Others] haven’t really been doing anything. They haven’t written a whole charter about what we’re going to be doing once this regime is toppled.”
Golshahian believes international audiences are receiving an incomplete picture of the opposition movement. “In a lot of mainstream media, they’re saying that we don’t have a leader for our revolution,” she said. “We want people to know that what they’re saying in the mainstream media is not what the majority of the people in Iran are chanting and getting killed for. They want their king back, and they want this regime gone.”
She expressed support for foreign intervention in Iran, framing it as humanitarian assistance.
“A lot of people do say that Iranians don’t want military intervention by the U.S., but that is completely false,” she said. “We do want military intervention, and we want it as soon as possible, because there is no other way that people can fight the regime on their own. We need humanitarian aid.”
Only a few hours later, Israeli and American military assets in the region began their attack against Iran.
The Vancouver demonstrations are set to continue in the coming weeks. Golshahian said protests have been held every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. outside the U.S. Consulate downtown. Additional rallies take place on weekends at rotating locations, including the Vancouver Art Gallery, David Lam Park and Jack Poole Plaza, organized in part through the Persian Van City Instagram account.
“We’re going to keep going every weekend and within the week as well, until the regime is toppled and until our shah comes back,” Golshahian said.
