My Heart Is in Iran
What do you do when people you love are under attack?
This week has been dominated by the Israeli attack on Iran. For those in the diaspora, it’s a worrying time, waking up each morning feeling a sense of dread as you open news and social media sites, not knowing what atrocity you might read about, what images of destroyed buildings, grieving families, dead children and bombed hospitals you might see. For those in Iran, it’s a more visceral anxiety – of what could happen, where this could go, what it means for everyone’s lives.
This isn’t normal and people in the Iran or anywhere in the Middle East aren’t “used to it”. They exist in a level of stress and anxiety that is completely unrecognisable to people in the West, who, if we’ve learnt anything from the last 18 months, can comfortably go about their days in absolute denial and indifference to what their governments are complicit in doing in other parts of the world.
The last few years l has been the longest time in my life that I haven’t visited Iran. between pregnancies and the political situation there, I haven’t had the strength - even though I miss my family terribly. Instead I wrote Sabzi, a book inspired by wanting my vegetarian husband to enjoy some of the Persian dishes we grew up with and enable us to eat family meals that carry the fragrances and flavours of this beautiful country. On Thursday, I said to my Maman that now was the time and I really wanted to travel to Iran soon with my daughter Mitra. On Friday, we woke up to the news of the Israeli attack.
It’s hard to explain the the constant levels of worry that come from having Middle Eastern heritage. All our fates are tied together. All our hope and dreams too. And we would all do a lot better if the West just left everyone alone with their endless proxy wars in the region, their brutal sanctions, their funding and arming of extremists.
Iran needs political change but you think a Trump/Netanyahu fuelled regime change will improve things for the people there then you might want to catch up on recent history in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya (not to mention the history of UK and US involvement in Iran). It also won’t make Israelis safer.
Not content with bombing Palestinian territory, Lebanon and Syria in the last 18 months, the Israeli government has now turned its sights on Iran. It’s an obvious deflection from Gaza at a time when they were finally coming under pressure from Western media and sanctions against Israeli cabinet ministers were announced from countries including the UK. As far as I am aware, I have not seen any condemnation by any Western nation of the unprovoked Israeli attack on Iran, instead some baffling “both sides need to de-escalate” rhetoric. Yet Iran was in the middle of negotiations about its nuclear programme that were planned for last weekend. Instead Israel killed the Iranian negotiator. Reports yesterday from US intelligence sources said that they believed Iran was several years away from creating a nuclear bomb.
At the time of writing almost 600 Iranians have died (this figure is likely higher) and hundreds more have been injured. Tehran, a city with 10 million inhabitants, has been warned by the USA and Israel that it needs to evacuate. Where exactly is everyone supposed to go? Can you imagine a city like London or New York evacuating? I went to a Palestinian friend’s book launch yesterday and sat lamenting with others from our industry – who is going to stop this deranged Israeli regime?
The Iranian people have been through so much suffering, at their hands of their own leaders, and at the hands of the West and their proxies in the region.
They deserve peace, economic security and freedom. And your solidarity.
They don’t deserve another Western-backed war.
Yasmin x
The fact that people are saying that people in Iran/the region are “used to it”. No imagination or empathy. You get on with life, of course, but how can you ever get used to the constant fear and stress of this level of danger? Not to mention the worry over everyone you hold dear too. Thoughtless, callous thing to say.
Violence only ever breeds more violence. I’m sending love to the Iranian people, they do not deserve this. 💔