As Israeli bombs fell on Iran over the last two weeks, Mandy Ansari Jensen cycled between crying and praying and checking her phone every few minutes as she waited to hear from her father in Iran. After five sleepless nights, she finally confirmed he was alive.
Jensen, who was raised in the U.S. after her parents fled Iran during the 1979 revolution, is one of many Iranians around the world who say they feel frozen in fear and heartbreak as they await updates from loved ones in the country amid the outbreak of war between Israel and Iran. The U.S. entered the conflict by bombing several Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday, and Iran on Monday retaliated with a symbolic strike on a U.S. milit base in Qatar that caused no casualties.
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Many in the Iranian diaspora come from families who sought escape from the theocratic regime that took over in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution. As the conflict between Iran and Israel persists, some Iranians abroad are expressing renewed hope for regime change, while others worry about the consequences of foreign intervention.
“The Iranian people have resisted oppression for decades. They’ve risked everything to protest, organize, speak out,” said Jensen, a content creator who now lives in New York City. “Iranians want a free Iran, but having our country bombed by world leaders who we know don’t care about the safety of innocent civilians is not the way either. We are not pawns. We are people.”