Farnaz Fassihi

And many families have just scattered like stardust all over the world and separated from each other.

For Mr. Khamenei's supporters, this feels like a big loss.

His supporters started to come out into the streets in large numbers and going to mosques and praying and crying.

It feels like the ground is shifting under them.

Not only have they lost a religious figure that they revered and believed in, but they've also lost a political leader of a system that they have ideological loyalty to.

It feels like that is in jeopardy, that they don't know whether this Islamic Republic that they believe in and they support is going to survive or not without him.

And you know, this is the reality of Iran, Michael.

This polarized society.

And one wonders, whatever comes next, whatever form of government comes next, how are you going to bring these two sides anywhere close to each other?

Or is that even possible?

Exactly.

I don't know how these two sides are going to reconcile.

I would say that the overwhelming majority of the population in Iran are opponents of the regime, about 80%, and the core supporters are about 20%.

And I think we can sort of draw this conclusion from voting patterns, right?

In the past couple of years, when there's been presidential elections or parliamentary elections, Iranians who are hardcore believers of the regime have gone to polls around 20 percent.

It's been 20 percent of the population.

Right.

We can, I think, draw from that.

And also like in January, literally every small and big town all over Iran saw protests against the government, including the religious sort of strongholds of the government where there were lots of people out calling for the end of this Islamic regime.

If we look at the demographics of the protesters who were killed in January, they're from all ethnic groups, from a large geographic area in Iran, and different socioeconomic backgrounds.