Protesters took to Portland streets on Saturday, saying they want better lives for people in Iran – but the two groups that rallied midday in the city had very different views of how to get there.
About 20 Iranians and Iranian Americans gathered at a fountain near Saturday Market in Tom McCall Waterfront Park for the small “Free Iran PDX” march.
A man holds a sign supporting 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammedi, imprisoned in Iran for many years. A few demonstrators gathered at Portland's waterfront on March 7, 2026, to oppose the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
John Rudoff / OPB
“There’s this huge fear right now within Iranian people that if the war stops, then the Islamic Republic is going to crack down on its own people even harder,” said one protester, who declined to give her name because she fears her family members still in Iran could be arrested or killed because of her views.
The 31-year-old woman, who moved to the U.S. from Iran when she was 19, said she started demonstrating for regime change in January, after leaders there authorized massacres that killed thousands of Iranians.
About 20 demonstrators gathered at Portland's waterfront on March 7, 2026, to oppose the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They focused attention on the large number of executions in Iran, often for political offenses such as demonstrating against the regime.
John Rudoff / OPB
She hopes the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an attack launched by both Israel and the U.S. could be a step towards democracy in the country of her birth.
Roughly 10,000 to 15,000 people with Iranian heritage live in Oregon, including more than 3,000 who were born in Iran, according to the Oregon Historical Society’s Oregon Encyclopedia.
Videos from Iran after last weekend’s attacks have shown contrasting emotions, with some in the country celebrating as others mourned Khamenei and decried U.S. attacks.
The Iranian American protester who spoke to OPB said she worried that participants in another Saturday protest in Portland might not understand why many Iranians celebrated Khamenei’s death.
“He was our oppressor. He was our dictator, and he funded terrorism openly and happily,” she said. “We’re very much aware of that.”
Less than a mile away, that other protest, organized by a pro-Palestinian activist group, drew fewer than a hundred people, who rallied behind the cry “Hands off the Middle East.”
About 75-100 demonstrators gathered in Portland's Director Park to protest American actions in the Middle East.
John Rudoff / OPB
“The math is simple. We need to end the violence,” said Jason Ohmann, who helped organize the Portland for Palestine event at the city’s Director Park.
The group has been concerned about U.S. and Israeli involvement in Lebanon and Syria for years, he said, and mobilized against attacks on Iran soon after the war began.
“Violence against civilians in a sovereign nation is unacceptable and doesn’t lead to any solutions. It never has.”
A handful of counter-protesters, including a conservative livestreamer, shouted anti-immigration chants and clashed with the group in Director Park.
Portland police said they received a report of pepper spray being deployed.
A demonstrator washes pepper spray from the eyes of another demonstrator in Portland's Director Park, where people gathered to protest American actions in the Middle East. Organized by Portland for Palestine and Freedom Road Socialist Organization, the immediate focus was America's war on Iran. A few counterprotestors showed up with bullhorns and pepper spray.
John Rudoff / OPB
A third group – solidly in support of U.S. intervention in Iran – has been holding its own Portland protests.
Iranian Americans of Portland had been asking for the federal government to help topple the Iranian government for weeks, even before the U.S. took action.
Its members celebrated at Pioneer Courthouse Square last weekend as news emerged of Khamenei’s death. The group is expected to convene there again on Sunday.
Photographer John Rudoff contributed to this report.
