Philadelphia protesters condemn U.S. military attacks on Iran as some Iranian Americans in the region express hope

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Dozens of people gathered in front of Philadelphia City Hall on Saturday afternoon to protest the U.S. and Israeli joint military attack on Iran.

“This is horrific,” said David E. Gibson, co-director of Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW!, an associate group of Peace Action that organized Saturday’s protest. “War is never good, and there are other ways that we can prevent … Iran and other countries from getting nuclear weapons.”

At the beginning of Saturday’s demonstration, two counterprotesters yelled expletives at the protesters and shouted “Death to the regime” and “Free Iran” before walking away.

“No one supports the Iranian regime, but we don’t think that bombing Iran is going to help,” Gibson said. “If anything, the people on the lower end of the hierarchy get hurt, and the people on the upper end generally get away with it, right?”

‘Mixed emotions’ for some Iranian Americans in Philadelphia

Firouzeh Jaraha, a member of Philly Iranians, a group advocating for an end to Iran’s theocratic regime and aligned with the Woman Life Freedom movement, said there are “a lot of mixed emotions” for Iranian Americans and their family members still living in Iran.

“People are happy and sad and worried, and they are trying to stay safe,” she said. “This morning was the last time that I talked to one of my sisters for just two minutes, and the internet got disconnected, and since then, we don’t know where they are, what they’re doing.”

Jaraha said she supports the military operation and wants to see an end to an “evil regime.”

“The Iranian people have said it many times that they want help. They want to be protected by foreign governments, and then they would be their army on the ground,” she said.

“We understand that no one welcomes war, and … we were hoping to prevent this from happening,” she added.”However, many Iranians have been waiting for a long time to crack down this regime, and it was impossible without a foreign intervention, and this is the only way that we could actually get to that point.”

Protesters decry Trump actions, fear outcome of attacks

Democratic elected officials from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware have decried the attacks, with some saying President Donald Trump needed congressional approval to launch what the Department of Defense is calling “Operation Epic Fury.” Republican elected officials have largely supported the strikes, which Iranian state media said have killed more than 200 people so far.

Organizers at Saturday’s protest urged people to call their congressional representatives to express their support for war powers resolutions introduced in both the U.S. Senate and House. The legislation aims to curtail Trump’s power to command military operations without congressional approval.

“In particular, Sen. [John] Fetterman needs to hear from Pennsylvanians why it affects them directly,” Gibson said of the Democratic senator, who aligned himself with Pennsylvania Republicans, including Sen. Dave McCormick, in expressing support for the operation in a post on X on Saturday. “He will listen to Pennsylvania voters if they talk about why it affects them directly.”

Gail Lopez-Henriquez, 71, of Old City, said she was “shocked and horrified” by news of the attacks and came to the protest to condemn what she said is an “unconstitutional” attack.

“The president does not have the authority to unilaterally decide to bomb another country, and I’m very afraid of what this is going to mean for the entire region of the Middle East, and I’m very worried about what it could mean for this country as well,” she said.

Umer Rahman, 44, of Chesterbrook, Chester County, stopped by the protest with his wife and two children while walking through Center City.

He said the attacks are a “complete 180” from what he expected of the Trump administration.

“Why would you want to have your tax or your hard-earned money to go there and to kill not just kids, but destroy billions of dollars worth of infrastructure?” he said. “It’s only going to help [the] military industrial complex a whole lot, and I hope cooler heads can prevail.”

Steve Telturk, 34, of West Philadelphia, said he has loved ones who are Iranian and have family in Iran.

“What I personally want to see, you know, as an American who cares about people in Iran and cares about human life overall, is just peace immediately,” he said. “I do want human rights for Iranians, and I would love to see an end of the regime one day. But … war is not the way that it’s going to happen. We won’t see a democracy that is created and led by Iranians through U.S. military action.”

‘The closest we’ve ever been to taking our country back’

Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was dead, seemingly confirming Israeli reports that the leader was killed in the military strikes.

For Reza Moradinezhad, 34, a Philadelphia resident and also a member of Philly Iranians, Khamenei’s death is something he and other Iranians “were wishing for.”

“He killed many of our friends, many of our compatriots who wanted nothing but freedom and dignity,” he said. “So what is happening in Iran is the people of Iran wanting to take their country back.”

“We’ve been fighting every single day, and now we see that we are getting the closest that we’ve ever been to taking our country back,” he said. “We feel very hopeful that the regime is eventually going to fall, but we are also concerned about our loved ones and our compatriots inside the country.”

Moradinezhad criticized the lack of local media coverage of vigils and events the group hosted last month in response to the Iranian government killing tens of thousands of protesters.

“We feel like we don’t want to be pawns of anyone, whether it’s President Trump or whether it’s the liberal media,” he said.

“We are concerned, obviously. But more than that, we are hopeful …. Really, we think this is our time.”