"I can say, as someone who has participated in every protest in Iran that's happened over the last few years, that this was the largest, most impressive turnout that we've ever seen in Iran's streets," said Sara, a woman from Tehran, in an interview with N12 on Wednesday.
Sara described how, even knowing about the brutality of the regime, what she saw was beyond the pale.
"Someone close to me, a young guy who'd gotten a leg injury, was taken to the hospital. After being treated, he was released and went back home. Security forces came to his address, stood in his doorway, and murdered him right there."
The response from the Iranian government to the ongoing protests against the regime has been particularly deadly, with the US-based HRANA rights group confirming nearly 5,000 deaths linked to the unrest, and an additional 9,000 under review.
"The truth is that us, those of us who returned home, who stayed alive, we lost a lot," Sara said. "Beyond the people who died, the friends who were murdered, the many who were arrested, wounded, or lost the light in their eyes. It seems that something was uprooted from within all of us."
According to Sara, only a few days before, regime forces could be seen wandering the streets, wielding guns, batons, and military equipment, hoping to intimidate. "They're less prominent [now]," she explained, "but they still have forces in civilian clothes in places where protests are meant to happen."
'Mr. Trump, where are you now?'
The Iranian people need help fighting the Islamic Republic, Sara said.
"We're waiting for President Trump to keep his promise," she said. "Mr. Trump, where are you now?"
US President Donald Trump had previously promised consequences if Iran did not stop oppressing and killing protestors, including threatening the regime with US strikes.
"How many more of us need to be killed so that you understand that instead of talking to the Islamic Republic, you need to act against it in a decisive military action?" Sara asked. "Our hands are empty. We can't overcome them with empty hands."
The Iranian people's only hope, Sara explained, is foreign military aid.
"If a strike...were conducted," she concluded, "then, despite all the horror we've been through and all the crimes we've seen with our own eyes, we will return to the streets."