Amid the US-Iran war, Irani actor-activist Mandana Karimi has reaffirmed her fierce opposition to the country’s ruling establishment, following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“No one celebrates innocent loss of life. But you cannot ask a nation that has endured decades of executions, imprisonment, torture, and mass crackdowns to react with conventional mourning,” she says, adding that for many Iranians, “Celebration has become a form of resistance and a way to reclaim power over grief.”

Addressing accusations that such reactions amount to endorsing foreign military intervention, she responds: “This was not a random foreign agenda imposed on us. No one wants bombs in their country, but when all internal paths to reform are blocked, people begin to look outward.”

Mandana, 37, adds how Irani citizens are now calling for political activist Reza Pahlavi as their leader. “The chants of Javid Shah (Long live the king, a slogan opposing the Irani government) did not start abroad… they started inside Iran. We see Pahlavi as a transitional alternative capable of uniting the country.”

Actor Esha Gupta and shuttler P V Sindhu, who were stranded in the UAE amid the air travel shutdown, shared respective updates about being “back home”. Esha wrote, “I saw the strength of UAE... Thank you to our government for bringing the citizens home. Thank you to UAE government for working in solidarity with every country.”

Meanwhile, Sindhu wrote: “A heartfelt thank you to the incredible ground teams, Dubai authorities, airport staff, immigration, and every single person who stepped up and took such good care of us during a very difficult time.” She had to pull out of the All England Open Badminton Championships 2026 due to the Dubai ordeal.

Amid the growing unrest, Iranian-German actor Elnaaz Norouzi speaks exclusively to mid-day about the global turmoil, her stance on assassination, and the deep emotional impact of the conflict. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was reportedly assassinated on February 28 in a joint strike by the United States and Israel, dramatically escalating tensions across the West Asia. In response, Iran launched retaliatory attacks on US bases in the region, intensifying the crisis.

The freedom of speech never really existed in Iran and that is why we have so many political prisoners in Iran as well. There are thousands of innocent people who have been imprisoned, tortured, raped because they have spoken against the government. At this point, it has surpassed the point of women and men but yes if we talk about specifically about women, women have almost no rights in Iran starting from the morality police going after them constantly, starting with the fact that as a woman you're not allowed in stadiums. As a woman in court, your statement is half as worth of what a man says. As a woman, you're not allowed to travel without your husband's permission.  As a woman you cannot ask for a divorce easily.

If you ask me as an Iranian, who who was born in Iran, who has lived in Iran, who has lived under his real leadership, who has family who's living under his leadership and who has friends who are living under his leadership, I will tell you that a dictator has been taken out, a terrorist that has taken many many people's lives has been taken out, a person who has chanted and has made millions of Iranians chant 'Death to America' for 47 years has been taken out; a person who's been building nuclear bombs in hiding. To attack the American people and America and the Israelian people in Israel for years and years has been taken out. This is a big win for the whole world; it's just that the world doesn't understand, we understand it because we've lived with it and we know it but unfortunately the people just look at it from one lens and that is 'oh he was a religious leader' but being a religious leader doesn't make you right when you do wrong, right?

I receive a lot of death threats and many people disagree with me, but that brings us back to freedom of speech and the idea of live and let live. That’s all the Iranian people are asking for. We want to live the way we choose, and we are okay letting others live as they wish. The problem is that a narrow mindset is forcing everyone to follow one way of life. This is not against religion. I have many Muslim friends whom I love and respect. Iran is home to Muslims, Christians, Baha’is, Zoroastrians and more. Everyone simply wants equal respect and the freedom to decide for themselves.

He is the son of Ali Khamenei. He is another person that was not elected by the Iranian people. Again, the safety is still at the mark because he has the same views. He supports the same barbaric thoughts that his father had and besides any of that Iranians are saying, we would like to choose our leader ourselves. We don't want supreme leaders. We don't want somebody who we have not chosen. That's the only thing. Since when in a democratic world in 2026 should anybody else decide who rules over 90 million people? The people should be deciding that for themselves and the people have decided they want the crown prince Reza Pahlavi back.

The end of the wars in the West Aisa will come with the end of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This regime has created unrest across the region by funding proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis with billions taken from our oil and tax money. Iranians don’t benefit from our own resources. When people protested high gas prices in 2019, it was because that wealth was being diverted to Hamas. So once you remove the Islamic Republic of Iran, this regime, the Ayatollahs, once you remove the clerics, there will be peace all over the West Asia because all the funding is going to be gone and all of those terrorist groups will crumble right because they'll not have any resource.