Iranians took to the streets nationwide Feb. 11 to hold mass state-organized demonstrations, celebrating yet another anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew the Western-backed monarchical rule of the shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Aside from the typical death slogans targeting the United States and Israel, this year’s anniversary turned into a memorial for Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, whose death in early January in an American drone strike nearly pushed Tehran and Washington to the brink of all-out war. The event coincided with the 40th day after the assassination, which the Islamic Republic says rallied Iranians behind the flag as Soleimani was a “soldier of the nation” and a nonpartisan figure.