Iranian-Americans in Los Angeles reacted to the Iran war with mixed feelings
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LOS ANGELES, California – Los Angeles – home to the largest Iranian population outside of Iran – has become a hub for the Iranian diaspora as the conflict in the Middle East heats up.
Thousands of people gathered in the streets of Los Angeles following US and Israeli strikes on Iran that reportedly killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For many in the community who remember life in Iran before the 1979 revolution, the news brought a moment they said they had waited decades to see.
Roozbeh Farahanipour, an Iranian-American who was only seven years old when the clerics took power in Iran, said she was in disbelief.
“I took a bottle of champagne, opened it, and drank it,” said Farahanipour. “It was the time we’ve been waiting for, many, many years.”
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Roozbeh Farahanipour was involved in anti-government opposition groups before fleeing Iran. (Courtesy of Roozbeh Farahanipour)
Farahanipour participated in student protests in Iran in 1999, events that eventually forced him to flee the country after the authorities arrested him. He remembers hearing that his execution had been announced in the newspaper before his trial, prompting him to flee Iran.
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“[The] the night before my trial, they published my death sentence in the newspaper, the day before my trial. It was the last day I was in Iran,” Farahanipour said.
Roozbeh Farahanipour said she fled to Iran after reading her sentence in a local newspaper. (Amalia Roy)
Although he initially supported US and Israeli strikes targeting senior Iranian government officials, he is now concerned that the military operation has gone on longer than necessary.
“The first minute, after starting the war, they killed the head of state. They should declare victory in the second minute,” he said. “Why should we stay there and make it more difficult?”
Mohammad Ghafarian left Iran in 1972 to study, before the revolution. He has no intention of returning, but Ghafarian has siblings in the country that he has not heard from since the conflict began. (Amalia Roy)
Mohammad Ghafarian, who left Iran years before the revolution to study abroad, now owns a grocery store in Los Angeles. He said he has not heard from his family in Iran for almost a month and fears for civilians caught up in the violence.
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“I would like the American and Israeli governments to overthrow the regime,” Ghafarian said. “But when they bomb our country – institutions, power plants, water tanks, houses – they can’t separate people from good to bad.”
Despite concerns about the ongoing conflict, some Iranian-Americans believe the strikes could open up opportunities for Iranians inside the country to challenge the government.
