Rare night of street parties in Iran after Rouhani win
TEHRAN: It was a rare night of open- air partying in Iran on Saturday as tens of thousands of supporters of President Hassan Rouhani took to the streets to celebrate his re- election.
For many, it was a chance to breathe easily again after a tense campaign between Rouhani and his hardline opponent Ebrahim Raisi.
“I’m happy and a bit relieved after a month of stress,” said 27year- old Afshin as he joined a large crowd gathered in Vali Asr Square of central Tehran.
Across the country, young men and women danced and sang together in the streets until the early hours of the morning, with many taking advantage of the more relaxed atmosphere that attends presidential elections every four years.
As well as the purple of the Rouhani campaign, many wore the green of the reformist Green Movement, which was harshly suppressed after mass protests in 2009.
“Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein,” shouted the crowd in Vali Asr, combining a popular religious slogan with the name of Mir Hossein Mousavi, a reformist leader who has been under house arrest since 2011.
Cars honked amid patriotic chants as more and more people filled the streets after dark, completely blocking traffic across wealthier north Tehran.
One group screamed with joy as a young boy threw batches of Rouhani photos into the air. — AFP