‘Emotionally devastating’: Iranians in US on regime’s deadly protest crackdown | Iran
Recent protests in Iran have created the country’s most serious and deadliest unrest since the 1979 revolution and have turned eyes from around the world to the Middle East.
The Guardian asked Iranians living outside the country to share their views on the current situation in the country and the possibility of US intervention.
Hundreds of Iranians living in the United States described living in constant anxiety and despair, consumed by fear for their loved ones back home, and the situation has only worsened. Internet outages that disrupt communications.
“No one should have to wake up every day wondering whether their loved ones are being executed, imprisoned, or murdered in the streets simply because they demand dignity and freedom,” Mahnaz, 36, wrote. “The scale of this brutality requires more than statements of concern.”
Fereshteh, 45, a laboratory scientist, described the past weeks as “emotionally devastating.”
“Even from a distance, the fear never ends. Most days I wake up in terror to check my phone, afraid to see bad news or find out that someone I love has been arrested, injured or killed,” Fereshteh said, adding that many Iranians they spoke to “believe that peaceful protests alone are no longer enough.”
“The regime has shown that it will respond only with bullets, prisons and executions,” they continued. “In this case, international military intervention may be the only realistic way to stop the killings and eliminate this system of oppression. If intervention can end this dictatorship and give people the chance to live in freedom, many of us believe it is a price worth paying.”
Ellie, 33, said she felt “an intense sense of survivor’s guilt” while in the US and was “emotionally paralyzed and often left speechless” by the news from Iran.
“A regime that oppresses its own people through violence, fear and isolation cannot remain a local problem,” he said. “It destabilizes regions, fuels extremism, encourages forced migration and normalizes atrocities. Ignoring this does not create peace, it postpones a bigger crisis.”
Most survey respondents said they believed some form of international intervention in Iran was necessary.
“I believe promises and sanctions have failed for decades,” said Luna Houshmand, a software engineer in her 30s. “If it worked, this regime wouldn’t still be killing people in the streets. If the world truly believes in human rights, it must go beyond statements and take real action.”
A woman in New York who asked to remain anonymous said her family in Iran told her that people “feel helpless and helpless and their only hope is foreign aid.”
“President Trump promised the Iranian people that he would come to their rescue, and the people trusted that promise,” he said. “Our only concern right now is that he won’t be able to follow through.”
Maryam Tehrani in Seattle said she believes Iranians need “meaningful pressure on the Islamic Republic, not empty statements.”
“Sanctions targeting officials, international isolation and real accountability are important,” he said. “Military intervention is complex and risky, but complacency is not an option. The priority must be to protect civilians and support the right of the Iranian people to decide their own future without coercion.”
Sahar Haddadian, a civil engineer in Florida, said that “no one wants war,” “foreign intervention or to see innocent lives lost,” but “history has shown that some regimes have left the world with no good options, only hard options.”
“You can’t negotiate with a regime that rules by terror,” Haddadian, 36, said, adding that “dialogue, appeasement and empty diplomacy have failed.”
Haddadian also said that the United States “must make it clear that it stands with the Iranian people.”
“This means real consequences for regime leaders, the complete isolation of those responsible for crimes against humanity, and unwavering support for the Iranian people who are bravely demanding freedom,” they said.
Ellie, a 42-year-old from Colorado, said that although she is “strongly opposed to war,” “the situation in Iran has reached a point where people are being killed for demanding basic rights” and that “without some form of international intervention, be it political, diplomatic, economic or strategic pressure, it is difficult to see how this regime can be stopped.”
“If President Trump or another world leader is willing to take meaningful, non-military action to help end the ongoing oppression, I would welcome that support,” he said.
An Iranian in California, who asked to remain anonymous, said they had long opposed “foreign military intervention in Iran,” that they “didn’t trust the intentions of the United States” and that they were “deeply aware of the damage foreign interventions do to the region,” but now they feel torn.
“We are at such an impasse now that I honestly don’t know what to feel anymore,” they said. “When a regime responds to peaceful protests with mass bloodshed, when civilians are shot and hospitals overflow with the injured, it forces people like me into impossible moral contradictions.
“I find myself torn between my long-held beliefs and the sheer helplessness of watching my people being slaughtered without any protection or voice.”
Tara, a 36-year-old engineer, also described herself as “deeply conflicted” about US intervention.
“I cannot predict what will happen to my family and I fear that any intervention could lead to more death and destruction,” he said. “At the same time, I see no clear alternative to ending the Islamic regime’s grip on power. I wish there was a way to eliminate those responsible without harming ordinary people or destroying our beautiful country.”
“I worry about this turning into a never-ending war.”
