For a moment it looked as if she was going to tear her headscarf off. The large, colourfully dressed woman in the crowds thronging Tehran's Kaj Square did not speak much English, but she had no problems making herself understood.
"We're so happy, we're so happy," she shouted, amid the cacophony of honking horns and joyous celebrations that greeted Saturday evening's unexpected announcement that Hassan Rouhani had won Iran's presidential election in the first round of voting, without requiring a runoff.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country, thrilled at the possibility of change. For me, the only British journalist allowed into Iran to cover the election, it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement of the evening. But then, in the shadows at the north end of Kaj Square, a nondescript shopping centre in one of Tehran's middle-class districts, I noticed about 20 policemen watching the surge of people.
we invite our users to read the ocmplete article published June 16 2013
For a moment it looked as if she was going to tear her headscarf off. The large, colourfully dressed woman in the crowds thronging Tehran's Kaj Square did not speak much English, but she had no problems making herself understood.
"We're so happy, we're so happy," she shouted, amid the cacophony of honking horns and joyous celebrations that greeted Saturday evening's unexpected announcement that Hassan Rouhani had won Iran's presidential election in the first round of voting, without requiring a runoff.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country, thrilled at the possibility of change. For me, the only British journalist allowed into Iran to cover the election, it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement of the evening. But then, in the shadows at the north end of Kaj Square, a nondescript shopping centre in one of Tehran's middle-class districts, I noticed about 20 policemen watching the surge of people.
we invite our users to read the ocmplete article published June 16 2013
