As fears for a wider regional war in the Middle East grow, advocacy groups in Boston gathered to protest the United States’ military action in Iran.
The joint U.S.-Israel attack on Iran took place Saturday night, targeting Iranian military infrastructure and government buildings and killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since then, Iran and its proxy militias in Lebanon and Iraq have launched missiles at Israel, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, and Cyprus.
As of Wednesday, Iranian authorities reported more than 780 casualties, including more than 150 school girls who were killed in a strike on a school located close to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base. It is unclear how many of the overall deaths include members of the IRGC. Israeli authorities report that 10 civilians were killed in Iranian attacks, and six U.S. military service members were killed.
As news of Khamenei’s death spread, protests, both in support and against the military actions, erupted across the globe.
On Monday night, dozens marched through Downtown Crossing waving the Islamic Republic regime’s flag and holding signs condemning the U.S. operation, which has been dubbed Operation Epic Fury.
The anti-war rally was organized by local advocacy groups, including the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Palestinian Youth Movement, Boston Coalition for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Massachusetts Peace Action, and several other organizations.
“I was shocked and angry and sad,” said Farnaz Mobayyen, an Iranian immigrant who has lived in Massachusetts for 25 years, in reference to Saturday’s attacks. Mobayyen attended the protest with her husband and her two young sons.
Mobayyen said she has not been able to reach her uncles and aunt in Iran due to the full internet blackout the regime put in place in early January, which cut off Iranians’ phone calls and texts from anywhere outside of the country.
For months prior to the recent attack, more than a million Iranian civilians protested in the streets of Iran against the regime’s authoritarian rule. Under the blackout, which prevented documentation of many of the events happening in Iran, IRGC forces opened fire at the protesters and detained thousands. It is still unclear how many were killed in the anti-government protests, but estimates range from 6,000 to upwards of 30,000.
At this time, President Donald Trump promised Iranian civilians that “help is on its way,” and for weeks, a potential American military action loomed over talks with Iranian officials regarding nuclear energy. Now, Trump urges Iranians to return to the streets and take over their government.
Mobayyen said she doesn’t think the U.S. coordinated enough protection for the Iranian citizens when deciding to attack.
“I’m very concerned … It’s my motherland. I know [ the U.S. government] is not worried about the democracy there,” she said. “They just want to break up the land into pieces.”
But the military operation has also sparked celebration among Iranians across the globe. In Boston, hundreds from Iranian community organizations gathered at Copley Square over the weekend, waving Iranian flags from before the 1979 revolution, alongside American and Israeli flags welcoming Trump’s intervention.
Kian, another Iranian immigrant in attendance at the anti-war protest, who declined to provide a last name for safety reasons, stood on a tall pile of snow holding out his sign as cars passed on Tremont Street. It read, “Don’t Iraq Iran.”
Kian immigrated to the U.S. when he was a teenager and became a citizen 47 years ago. He said he “doesn’t forget” his home country and that he will always have “Iranian blood.”
“Anybody who’s happy that their homeland is bombed, there’s something mentally wrong with them,” Kian said.
A freshman Emerson College student, who wished to remain anonymous due to their international status, also joined the anti-war protest. He explained that the people from his country believe there’s too many citizens unaware of “American imperialism.”
“I’ve seen what the U.S. does to the world … It’s a hated country across the world because [it’s] the number one manufacturer of death,” he said. “You can no longer export death across the world because it’s beginning to reflect inside [the country] with your ICE. Your level of extreme violence is reverting inwards.”
He continued, saying that Emerson should do more to educate its students on the U.S.’s actions toward foreign nations.
“If Emerson cannot set an example to its own students, what does that say about the institution?” he questioned. “It’s rotten to the core … We must force our institutions to actually condemn these things.”
Joe Tache, a PSL member and candidate for the U.S. Senate, criticized any U.S. military action abroad.
“From Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya, whenever the U.S. military intervenes in another country, it does not improve the conditions of life for the people in that country, and it definitely doesn’t improve safety and security here in the United States,” he said in an interview with The Beacon.
Nancy Lessin, a co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, said she couldn’t help but cry at the news this past Saturday morning, but ensured her organization would protest and act with similar force as they did when they first formed.
“We formed in 2002 to speak out to prevent the U.S. invasion of Iraq,” she said. “Fast forward to Feb. 28, 2026, and we’re seeing the same thing.”