With Iran under attack by the United States and Israel, two Needham residents with ties to Iran expressed mixed feelings: troubled by the unilateral decision-making of the Trump administration, worried about the welfare of friends, family, and the greater Iranian population, yet hopeful that the violence and the targeting of the regime will open the door to a better, more egalitarian society.
Needhamites Ramin Abrishamian and Fatemeh Haghighatjoo are both U.S. citizens born in Iran with long histories here that began with academic opportunities in the U.S.
Abrishamian came to the U.S. in the 1970s as a graduate student and was not able to return after the revolution in 1979. He has lived in Needham for more than 40 years.
“This is not a soundbite kind of an answer,” he said about his reaction to the news this week. “It’s complex not because of geopolitics, but also because of the emotional feelings. On one hand, as an American, I am distraught at any act of war, especially when we go to war without a clear consultation. The act of going to war is such a horrible way of trying to solve differences rather than consultation, discussion, negotiation. So, on the one hand, I am kind of mortified that we have young men and women put in harm.
“And also when I look at the pictures and videos of bombs being dropped on Tehran, which is the city where I was born, it’s distressing.
“On the other hand, I and many, many, many other Iranians — I’m sure the majority of Iranians, whether they live in Iran or outside — believe this has been a terroristic, oppressive, bloodthirsty, cruel regime. We saw a few weeks ago what they did to the demonstrators. But this is just one episode. If you keep going back to the 1980s, the massacres of their own people have been quite cruel.”
Abrishamian practices the Baha’i religion, an independent faith despised and oppressed by the fundamentalist Shiite regime that has been in place in Iran for more than 45 years. His parents, he said, were jailed for their religion and his mother died while in prison. As Baha’is, his family was subjected to apartheid-style laws and restrictions. Even non-Muslims, he said — who were by no means treated well — were afforded more rights in Iran than the Baha’i population.
He believes that, as a society, Iranians are tired of religious leadership. “Unfortunately,” Abrishamian said, “the religious nature of the regime in Iran has really blackened the name of religion and Islam for millions of Iranians. There is almost a resentfulness towards any sort of religion or religious activity.
“Almost 50 years of this dictatorship basically using religion as a means of trying to exercise its power has left a very bad taste.”
Haghighatjoo moved to Needham in 2009 after coming to the U.S. for a fellowship at MIT, then teaching at the University of Connecticut. She taught at Harvard’s Kennedy school and currently runs a nonprofit called the Non-Violent Initiative for Democracy, so her reaction to the war includes a professional viewpoint as well as her personal one. Like Abrishamian, her take is mixed: she’s opposed to the attack but feels for the suffering of the Iranian people under their current government.
“My mother, who is 79 years old, lives in Tehran,” she said. “My uncles, aunt, cousins, friends — everyone in Iran. And I am so worried about everybody. Not only my family and relatives, but all Iranians.”
As an American and a scholar, she sees the legal as well as the personal and geopolitical issues.
“This war by the United States and Israel is illegal. It’s in violation of international law. You can’t just go bomb another country because you don’t like them.”
Yet, for Haghighatjoo, too, there are multiple sides to the story. “Of course, on one hand you want this regime to go, but this is not enabling the agency of the people. As an organizer teaching organizing at Harvard Kennedy School, we care about enabling people, giving agency to people.
“Democracy never comes with bombs. I said this to Condoleezza Rice during the Iraq invasion. I said to her that, ‘President Bush said, I want to bring democracy to Iraq. Not only did you guys not bring democracy, but also you took security from the people.’ And I see the same story happening for Iran.
“Just yesterday, a friend of mine from Afghanistan called me to see how I am feeling. And she was so sad. She said, ‘You guys don’t understand.’ If you are from Afghanistan, you’ve had war for over 40 years. Syria went to war back in 2011 or ’12. Still the country is a mess. Iraq is a mess.”
She sees a path to a freer, more secular Iran involving a constitution, interim elections, and then a truly democratically elected government. This attack, she said, came despite what looked like positive negotiations that were in progress. Maybe there is reason for hope. “Let’s agree on the transition. Put that on the table. I believe it’s doable.”
“But,” she says, “I worry about two things. First, a civil war in Iran, as we saw in Syria. Because I see this ideological guy who they lost, their religious leader. They are going to fight to their last blood. This is my understanding of them. Second, Iran’s territorial integrity is my concern.” She fears the United States or its powerful Middle East allies may try to take over parts of Iran, leaving it smaller, poorer, and weaker.
Abrishamian expressed some pessimism, too, but his hope for Iran was brighter.
“There’s a sense of hope as well that maybe this war, as horrible as it is, might bring some relief to people, give them a chance to live their lives,” said Abrishamain. “Because of the sanctions in Iran, food, clean water, electricity, fuel, everything [was already] in a stressful condition. So people have been suffering from that in addition to the psychological and emotional and spiritual need for freedom.”
But perhaps freedom is a possibility. Abrishamian painted the picture: “A sense of being able to breathe, being able to dress the way they want — for women — to engage in activities that they want to engage in, whether it’s music or travel.”
“To such a great extent, it’s the women who are the most oppressed, and who are also the loudest in their opposition and in their resistance. And that’s just something extraordinary.
“You hold the spring down for so long, and then you let that spring go, it’s going to go wild — people’s emotions, people’s sense of hope.”
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