The world is watching Iran this weekend. Just seven weeks ago, Persians in Regina took to the legislative building to bring awareness to the internet blackout across Iran.

In the same spot on Saturday, they were celebrating, feeling that times could be changing in their home country. Their reason: the potential downfall of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

After the first report of bombings in the early hours on Saturday, many of the Persians might have been asleep. They woke up to drastic headlines.

“The hope after all this, after all the bombing is done, we can wait for the next elections,” said Soheil Usda, a Regina resident.

After the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Persians made their way to the legislative building around 3 p.m. Regina time.

“Everything is clear now, we have a clear path forward,” Usda said. “People believe, and we are all happy that after 47 years of this brutal regime, we can have freedom and we can have a free election.”

There are approximately 1,000 people of Persian descent living in Regina, according to those CTV News spoke to. For those celebrating, it’s one of their better days in recent memory.

“We couldn’t go back to our country because of this,” Usda said. “Right now, we all hope that we have a kind of free country. Right now, people are thinking about the beautiful days coming because of the good days that we had in Iran before the 1979 revolution. So, we all hope that this Islamic republic goes away and, we can have a free country again and fight for our freedom.”