Hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied in Tehran on Friday, and Marzieh Afaghi brought her toddler and husband to the march through downtown streets. The Iranians rally unfolded as a government-organized display of defiance after months of war, with participants in combat uniform carrying flags and chanting against the U.S. and Israel.
Tehran's Guard chief, Hassan Hassanzadeh, said over 600,000 people had registered to take part in military training, and more than 1 million were expected to participate. On Friday morning, the broadcaster estimated over 300,000 people were already on the streets, giving a floor to the crowd count before the march had fully peaked.
Tehran march and military training
State media had urged Iranians for days to join the campaign, and the rally was described as the biggest such demonstration since the United States and Israel attacked in February. State media reports said training with assault rifles would begin soon, and the volunteers would serve as an additional layer of security for the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij.
Hossein Taeb, the new head of the Basij, said the volunteers will be ready for full-fledged defense and that similar rallies will take place in other cities soon. His remarks tied the public march in Tehran to a broader mobilization effort that extends beyond a single rally and into a training system still taking shape.
Marzieh Afaghi and the crowd
Marzieh Afaghi said, “I am here to tell (U.S. President Donald) Trump that we Iranians have no fear about his threats against our homeland.” She also said, “No one in history could invade Iran and remain there.” Her presence with her toddler and husband made the rally look less like a stage-managed show of force and more like a family event folded into a military message.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, military commanders, and other senior officials watched the march, while some participants trampled flags of the U.S. and Israel and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Iran also showed anti-aircraft batteries and displayed drones that have been used against ships in the Strait of Hormuz, linking the domestic rally to the same security theater now surrounding the waterway.
Revolutionary Guard and the Basij
That security message sits beside a harder political one. Friday's events suggested hard-liners like Taeb may be more prepared to suppress future demonstrations against the theocracy, even as Iran's government said it wanted to rally the people and stress national unity. In January, Iran saw some of its largest nationwide protests in history, a reminder that the same street power being mobilized here can move in the opposite direction.
UKMTO said ship transits facilitated by the U.S. military off Oman averaged 24 a day over the past week and overall traffic remained about 90% lower than before the war. On Friday, Iran said it had attacked a Togo-flagged oil tanker, the Trend, in the Strait of Hormuz, while the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center said a tanker was hit by a projectile and a fire on board was extinguished; the next unresolved issue is how quickly the new volunteer training begins and how many of the more than 600,000 registrants actually move into it.
