The Iranian diaspora in Madrid between fear and euphoria: “Khamenei, listen up, you won't win this fight.”

The bombing that destroyed the residence of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, also shook the home of Sara Ardebili's family. At 8:45 a.m., the 45-year-old Iranian woman, who lives in Madrid, received a call from her sister, who lives in central Tehran, where the presidential complex is located. She wanted to reassure her: they were fine and were going out to check on their mother. Since 10 a.m., however, she has not heard from them. The regime has cut off communications, and all she knows is that the attacks in the area are continuing. “Right now, I feel like a volcano,” says Ardebili, her eyes filled with tears, “it's a mixture of feelings between concern for my family and happiness at the hope that the regime will fall.” She is among the more than 100 Iranians who gathered this Saturday at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid to raise their voices against the Islamic Republic. Alongside Ardebili is her friend Marjan Golzari. The two women say that after the first wave of bombings by the US and Israel on the Iranian capital, their relatives who work in Tehran's Grand Bazaar have closed their stalls and people have rushed to pick up their children from school. Golzari, 44, defends her rejection of the regime with determination, although concern for her family makes her voice tremble. Anxiety consumes her, but she remains clear about one thing: “Seeing the smoke and the war is shocking, but I know it's for the best.” The 44-year-old Iranian dreams of a transition led by the son of the Shah of Persia, Reza Pahlavi, and says she is confident that he will take them to the polls so that Iranians can decide their political future. “I have never had a feeling like this in the more than 40 years we have been living under this dictatorship. I am sure that we are now facing victory,” says Golzari. The face of Reza Pahlavi, the most recognizable figure in the opposition to the Iranian theocracy, covers the flags of the Iranians gathered at the Puerta del Sol. Arezoo Mojaverian, spokesperson for the Voice of Iran association, takes the microphone and addresses everyone present: “Many will wonder why we are supporting the bombing of Iran if they are attacking our country. It may seem pathetic, but the people of Iran must finish their revolution,” shouts the spokesperson. “Khamenei gave the direct order to apply the highest level of oppression against the people of the country. We want a total change of regime,” Mojaverian said, referring to the brutal repression of protesters in 31 Iranian provinces who challenged the regime a few weeks ago. One of the protesters at the Puerta del Sol pulls out the Israeli flag and everyone shouts “viva” while chanting, “Khamenei, listen, you will not win this fight.” The chants in Spanish are repeated in Persian and then resound loudly. Nilufar Saberi, sitting next to the speaker, says she feels “unhinged” and has two enormous fears. The first is that “after everything that has happened in the last five decades, the government will remain in place.” “That, in the interests of the international community, a change will be made for show, but fundamentally the same people will continue to govern in much the same way as they do now,” she argues. Her second fear, even greater than her fear of “Israel and the United States together, which is saying something,” Saberi adds, is her fear of the Iranian theocratic government, “because on other occasions it has already committed attacks against its own people in order to blame other countries.” Unlike her fellow protesters, Saberi defines herself as a republican, but she insists that “she cares more about the lives of her compatriots than her political ideology” and that right now “many Iranians support the Shah's son leading a transition until free elections can be held.” "Almost all of the opposition agrees on the content, although we don't agree on the system. But right now, even though I am a republican, I would sign up for my people in general to have a life like here in Spain, because the system is not as important as the content," she explains. There is something celebratory about what is happening this Saturday in Puerta del Sol: an Iranian techno song dedicated to the ayatollahs blares from the loudspeakers, its chorus proclaiming that as long as they remain in power, Iran cannot be Iran. Mehdi, a 25-year-old student, has decided to protest because "people like us don't have an army. We can't help in any other way than with this protest.“ The young man argues that they have finally ”freed themselves from this regime.“ ”They are horrible. We had no freedom, nothing... The economy is in crisis. The Iranian people are very happy,“ he says. Another protester shows a video that has gone viral on social media in which a woman dances in the streets of Tehran after the bombings. ”It's hard to predict the future,“ says Mehdi, ”but we want the Shah's son to be part of it. He has a plan for Iran," he concludes.