Farnaz Fassihi

And today, Iranians woke up to the first day of history without Mr. Khamenei in power.

And we don't know exactly what that's going to mean yet, but this figure who has loomed very large for almost four decades over the fate of Iranians is gone.

Some Iranians were celebrating.

People were pouring to the streets.

I had several video calls with several people I know in Tehran who turned on the camera and showed me cars honking on the streets.

People cheering.

There were fireworks.

People sticking their heads out of the windows and chanting, freedom, freedom, and this visceral scream.

like a scream of relief almost.

And for the diaspora, it was scattered all over the world.

It was a similar feeling.

I watched a group of family members congregate on FaceTime.

Some were in the U.S., some were in Europe, some were in Iran.

And everybody did a video call and some of them were crying.

They were just these tears of relief and shock and joy even.

And then they celebrated with shots.

And there was a lot of cheers.

Exactly.

It feels like a dream for many Iranians that once they used to all live a few blocks from each other and have multi-generational family gatherings.

And under Mr. Khamenei, many of them have not been able to return to Iran.