Roya Shahidi was heartbroken to learn that Israeli bombs were falling on her native city of Tehran — Iran’s capital, where she lived until she moved to the United States at age 16. Her grief only increased when the United States joined the bombing campaign with strikes of its own last week.
“It’s what we were all afraid of for so many years,” said Shahidi, who is 64 and lives in Atlanta, referring to the Israeli strikes. “It was our worst nightmare.”
Shahidi is one of about 8,300 people of Iranian descent who live in metro Atlanta’s core counties, and about 11,000 statewide, according to U.S. census figures. Many of these Georgians have complicated feelings about the military strikes.
“Tehran is at the foot of the mountains, and it’s such a vibrant city, and to think that these bombs were just falling on there every day, it’s unbelievable,” Shahidi said in an interview Wednesday. “I would tell my kids, because I live in Buckhead, it would be like hearing that bombs were being dropped on Peachtree Street and I’m not here.
“It would just seem so unreal.”
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
This month’s attacks left many Iranian Americans scrambling — with mixed success — to check on relatives in Iran. Several told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that they, or people they know, were afraid to speak publicly about the attacks or Iran’s government, for fear of reprisals against relatives in Iran or against themselves when they visit.
“As an Iranian American, it’s heart wrenching to watch events unfold both inside Iran and across the region,” said Neda Abghari-Skelton, who is 48 and lives in metro Atlanta, in an email to the AJC. “For many of us in the diaspora, there’s a constant duality — grief for what’s happening abroad, and fear for how these geopolitical tensions will affect our loved ones, especially the innocent civilians caught in the middle."
At such a difficult and terrifying time, Iranian Americans routinely feel they must explain to other Americans that Iran’s repressive theocracy doesn’t represent the values or hopes of its people, Abghari-Skelton said.
“The country we come from is over 90 million strong — artists, poets, students, activists, parents,“ Abghari-Skelton said. “The `death to’ chants people see on the news are government propaganda, not the voice of the people.
“Many of us, or our families, have risked everything to speak out against that system, and those who do back home are often imprisoned, tortured, or worse.”
Credit: Family photo
Credit: Family photo
Events like the recent attacks on Iran often fuel anti-Muslim sentiment, including bullying in schools and discrimination at airports and workplaces, said Azka Mahmood, executive director of the Georgia chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
“We also see a spike in Islamophobic activity across the board among the general public,” Mahmood told the AJC. “Racists of all colors and stripes are emboldened when the United States takes military action overseas.”
Mana Kharrazi said she received a message from a cousin after the Israel bombing campaign started, asking if she should flee her home in Tehran. Kharrazi, an Iranian American who grew up in metro Atlanta, said her cousin also asked if President Donald Trump’s administration would target civilians if it decided to order military strikes in Iran.
“I said: ‘Take any threats seriously,’” Kharrazi recalled this week in a phone interview. “’It’s better to leave when you have a chance.’”
Kharrazi, who lived most of her life in metro Atlanta but moved to Virginia last year, said her cousin left Tehran briefly and stayed with friends north of the capital. She contacted Kharrazi again on Sunday after returning home. By then, the Americans had bombed nuclear sites in Iran.
“She wasn’t doing well,” Kharrazi said. “She said that she was afraid. She felt like they were just trying to destroy Iranians. She was having a hard time sleeping, and she was scared, and she felt very alone.”
Kharrazi, a community organizer and human rights advocate, said the Iranian government doesn’t care about protecting its people, and she worries that the bombings could cause the government to become more repressive and militaristic.
But that concern is not universal. Others want military intervention, hoping that will topple the regime, she said.
“I’m afraid that this war may have opened up a Pandora’s box and that the level of state repression and paranoia will be so much worse,” Kharrazi said. “I do have hope that something will change because what’s happening is not sustainable. But that’s a hope I’ve watched my parents carry for 47 years.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Atlanta City Council member Amir Farokhi, an Iranian American, agreed that there are varying views among the diverse Iranian American diaspora, which includes both Persian Jews and Muslims.
“Even if political views are different, the universal feeling is one of concern for civilian safety,” Farokhi said.
Azadeh Shahshahani, a human rights lawyer who lives in Atlanta, said the U.S. intervention in Iran is especially problematic because of America’s debilitating sanctions against Iran and its support of Israel.
“The U.S. dropping these massive, massive bombs on Iranian soil — it’s atrocious, it’s unbelievable,” said Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director for Project South, an Atlanta-based social justice organization. “The U.S. preaches the importance of adhering to international law and issues human rights reports on every other country in the world, except for itself, and now we see a blatant violation.”
Shahshahani grew up in Iran during its war with Iraq in the 1980s. During the conflict, the U.S. provided military support and intelligence data to Saddam Hussein, who was then Iraq’s leader. The U.S. government under President Ronald Reagan also armed and negotiated with Iran.
Decades earlier, in 1953, the CIA helped orchestrate the overthrow of Iran’s popular prime minister, restoring Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power. In 1979, Iran’s Islamic Revolution forced the shah to flee, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini became the supreme leader.
Given its track record, the U.S. should not meddle in Iran, she said.
“Iranian people deserve peace of mind,” she said. “They deserve to live in their country without foreign intervention, and it’s really up to the Iranian people to determine the course of their country.”
For now, Shahshahani and many others are hoping that the ceasefire between Iran and Israel will hold.
“Our people are very agitated, very scared, very frightened,” Shahshahani said. “I think those scars are going to stay for a very long time.”
— Data reporter Jennifer Peebles contributed to this article.
About the Authors
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
