Bahar Momeni said for the past two months, she's been finding it hard to concentrate on anything except the tensions back in her home country of Iran.
“Because every day something was going on and every time that you checked your phone," she said. “You will find that something is happening there, and people in Iran, they are like that too.”
Iranians living in North Texas have been anxiously monitoring what’s happening in their home country in recent months. This weekend’s U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran have heightened concerns about family back in the Middle East and what it means for the community here.
Momeni, a college professor and writer who’s lived in North Texas for years, is unable to return to Iran because of her views against the Islamic Regime. Like many Iranians in the diaspora, she sees the death of Ayatollah Ali Khameini in an Israeli airstrike as a “window of hope” — but she worries about her family back home.
“Our situation is very difficult because we are in exile and we cannot return to our country,” she said. “And our parents and our loved ones are not able to come to the United States because of visa ban.”
The war comes amid a travel ban to the U.S. Iran is one of 38 countries with partial or full visa restrictions, leaving many families separated. Meanwhile the Trump administration has targeted Iranian communities living in the U.S. as part of stricter immigration enforcement. The government deported more than a dozen Iranians in January.
Nika Reineke has been living in North Texas for decades and is doing her best to keep in close contact with her younger brother Alireza, who is still living in Iran.
She was close to reuniting with him last year – but the U.S. travel ban kept him and his daughter from moving to the U.S. . Their interview at the U.S. Embassy in Dubai was canceled because of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.
“The rug was pulled from under her,” Reineke said. “She had an opportunity and then you know ... it was gone.”
Staying in contact with her brother is challenging — they’ve gone days without talking — because of issues with internet connectivity.
“They're able to communicate with us just briefly and basically saying that how they are doing, they're basically safe,” she said, “but their mental health isn't just in such a bad shape because they're afraid, they're sad, they are living in such an uncertainty.
She still hopes they will have the chance to come to the U.S. soon.
Momeni said the U.S. government unfairly targets Iranian people living in the U.S. and those hoping to come here.
“As long as you are an Iranian, you are treated as a representative of Islamic Republic of Iran,” she said. “Being approved for a change of status like a student visa, a work visa or a green card is elongating and it's very difficult these days for Iranians."
Homeira Hesami is part of the group Iranian Community of North Texas, a local group that favors regime change. She said she’s not as concerned about the possibility of enhanced immigration enforcement.
“This stuff that is happening in Iran is taking our attention,” she said.
Her group has been among those organizing rallies to protest Iran’s crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in recent months.. She said there’s a sense of “collective mourning” among Iranians all over the world.
“You talk to anyone and they have either a friend, family member, neighbor, they know someone,” she said. “That one person was killed from their family.”
The regime's crackdown on protests earlier this year resulted in the deaths of an estimated 3,000 people, according to Iranian leaders, though activists say the number could be much higher.
Professor Mahmoud Sadri, who teaches sociology at Texas Woman's University, said there’s been uprisings in the past, but this one is “unique and unprecedented.
“How bloody it was, how quickly it spread, and how aggrieved Iranian people became in the aftermath of it,” he said.
KERA spoke with him a few days before the U.S. and Israeli airstrike in Iran. He said he sees the possibility of a quick change of regime.
"Bombardment is not going to be leading to the change of regime -- but other more tragic, bloodier scenarios are possible,” he said. “First and foremost is the question, what is going to happen to the motherland? And what can we do to expedite a reform or change in position of Iran in the region?”
Among the worries are the fragmentation of the country, civil war, a failed state, and damage to the infrastructure and the cost of rebuilding, he said.
Bahar Momeni is trying to stay optimistic — for her family and for the future of Iran.
“There is a Farsi saying that one eye is crying and the other is laughing,” she said, “so, we are very hopeful and we hope that war is finished very soon.”
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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