Iranian Americans Gather for Nowruz Amid War Tensions
Iranian Americans assembled outside the former Iranian embassy in Washington DC on Friday to observe Nowruz, the Persian new year. The celebration occurred as the war in their homeland reached its three-week mark, casting a shadow over traditional festivities.
From Hope to Despair: A Community's Emotional Journey
When American and Israeli missiles first struck Tehran and news emerged of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death, Nasser, a sixty-something Iranian American father from Boston who frequently visits Iran, experienced a moment of optimism. He described feeling "a flash of hope, or maybe vengeance" when Khamenei and his inner circle were targeted.
This sentiment resonated with many among the approximately four million Iranians in the North American diaspora who have rejected the Islamic Republic's governing doctrine of velayat-e-faqih. Numerous Iranians both inside and outside the country had recently held Khamenei directly responsible for the violent suppression of mass protests in January. Many believed that removing the Islamic Republic's top leadership might enable Iran to pursue a different future.
However, after three weeks of full-scale warfare resulting in thousands of Iranian casualties, damage to cultural heritage sites, and seemingly random missile attacks on cities, that initial hope has evaporated. "Now, I feel sick about it," Nasser confessed. The Guardian is using pseudonyms for individuals quoted in this story who requested anonymity due to concerns about potential retaliation against family members in Iran.
A Spectrum of Emotions in the Diaspora
The war, initiated by America after months of threats with ever-changing stated objectives, has provoked diverse emotional responses among the Iranian diaspora. The majority of this population resides in North America, with significant communities in Europe and the United Arab Emirates.
"As my thoughts settled," explained Ali, a forty-something American-born New Yorker, "I wanted to spit hot fire at the ne'er-do-well royalists cheering the destruction of a country I might now never get to visit even the vestiges of. I have anger, righteous anger."
Nasser and Ali's perspectives do not represent the entire Iranian diaspora population. Waves of emigration from Iran have occurred in the decades following the Islamic Revolution, with some leaving recently while others have more distant connections to their ancestral homeland. Consequently, the diaspora is neither uniform nor homogeneous, with political views and visions for Iran's future varying based on when individuals left, their social status, and financial circumstances.
These divisions often exist within families, encompassing young and old, political asylees angry about their exile, politically ambivalent individuals, and those who simply sought better opportunities for themselves and their children.
Nowruz Without Celebration
Friday marked Nowruz, which this year coincided with Eid-al-Fitr, concluding Ramadan. Yet Iranians in the diaspora, regardless of political affiliation, found themselves in no mood for celebration. The regime's brutal response to January's widespread protests, resulting in thousands of protester deaths, shocked Iranians worldwide. Subsequent violence from Israeli and American bombs has further traumatized the community, including those who initially supported military intervention.
Feelings are less conflicted among those actively seeking restoration of the American-backed monarchy overthrown in 1979. While credible polling is unavailable to determine how many diaspora Iranians share this view, they represent a vocal minority who generally express little anguish over the war or its death toll. On social media platforms, they champion former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, who has declared himself "uniquely positioned" to lead the country. Notably, his only condolences have been offered to families of the first Americans killed in the conflict, with no mention of Iranian victims' families.
The painful divisiveness within the diaspora community was highlighted recently when an anti-regime and anti-Pahlavi activist was allegedly murdered in Canada. Two diehard monarchists, who have not yet entered pleas, were arrested in connection with the killing.
Complex Political Landscape
Some diaspora Iranians are not necessarily Pahlavi supporters or monarchists but would prefer him over the current regime. This perspective is heard both from people inside Iran and from older diaspora members. A ninety-something father living between the US East Coast, London, and Tehran remarked after last year's twelve-day war: "Why not Reza? Khak bar sare-moun for allowing our country to come to this." When questioned about Pahlavi's support for Israel, a country that had recently bombed and killed over one thousand Iranians, he responded: "So what? What has this regime's support of Russia or others done for us?"
Like many older Iranians with families settled in America, he and his wife hope to witness Iran freed from a regime they believe has brought their country to ruin. They may have mixed feelings about the excesses of the Shah's reign but retain memories of a proud and respected nation they still love.
Historical Context of Emigration
The initial wave of Iranian emigrants to Europe and the United States arrived immediately before or shortly after the Islamic Revolution. Subsequent waves included people escaping the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and the possibility of their sons being conscripted into an army losing thousands of soldiers daily; students choosing to remain in their study countries rather than return to uncertain economic opportunities in Iran; individuals with families abroad; and those joining flourishing Iranian communities in locations like Los Angeles or Toronto. Additionally, many secular Iranians, primarily from urban areas, grew weary of living in a theocratic state over the years.
Today, Iranians both at home and in the diaspora represent every possible political orientation, from monarchist (constitutional or authoritarian) to socialist, republican, Islamist, or Marxist, spanning the political spectrum from fascist right to communist left.
Regional Differences in Diaspora Sentiment
Iranians in Southern California tend to express the most virulent anti-regime sentiments, a trend dating back to the early 1980s when regular anti-regime demonstrations occurred in front of the federal building on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. Canada, with its lenient immigration policies in the late 1990s and early 2000s, hosts a growing Iranian diaspora that has become increasingly outspoken in denouncing the Iranian regime. Consequently, some of the world's largest anti-Islamic regime demonstrations now occur in Toronto.
For many, opposition to the bombing stems not from affection for the Iranian regime but from generally anti-imperialist sentiments that took root in Iran following the 1953 British-American coup that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. Donna Miles, an outspoken Iranian-Kiwi journalist active on social media early in the war, wrote: "Never forget that all this death and destruction is so the US can install a puppet leader in Iran and control its oil, just like they did in 1953."
Enough Iranians heard Donald Trump declare after the previous supreme leader's death that he would need to approve the next leader, and have noted his general fondness for other countries' oil and precious minerals, leading some to conclude the war is not about bringing democracy to the Iranian people.
Beyond Politics: Human Cost and Future Concerns
For many, fear and dread transcend political frameworks, stemming simply from horror at the destruction. "Looking forward, I'm despondent," Ali admitted. "What good can come of this? An Iran liberated into its own ruin?"
Nasser echoed these fears: "Iran will be poorer, hungrier, and more frightened. I do not expect a wave of protests soon. Who would dare? Even dissidents warn that bombing is not the same thing as liberation."
The existence of disparate voices expressing complex and even conflicting feelings about events in Iran should not be surprising. For Iranians who have suffered under a cruel regime, initial satisfaction or joy at the deaths of that regime's leaders is understandable. However, this has given way as the war continues, civilian casualties increase, and the conflict appears to lack coherent strategy.
Today, little genuine joy exists among diaspora Iranians, even those who dismiss warnings about the war's human cost and believe it will ultimately prove worthwhile. Some are joyless because they openly worry about regime collapse realities. Others cannot tolerate damage to cultural heritage sites, while additional concerns include infrastructure destruction and the possibility of a "victory" that leaves the regime intact and more oppressive than before. Within families and communities, these joyless individuals argue among themselves.
Fred, a retired Jewish Iranian American businessman who left Iran in 1980 and now lives in Los Angeles, expressed his feelings about the war Israel and America wage on his birth country via WhatsApp this week: "You know, I'm not political nor do I really know English well, but sincerely, my heart burns for the innocent children and their mothers and fathers."
