What it feels like for Iranian Americans to watch a revolution

Justin Haubrich was born in Oklahoma. But like many first-generation Iranian-Americans, he has kept a watchful eye on the situation unfolding in Iran. 

“Because of the political situation and the hostility of the Islamic regime toward religious minorities and dissidents, I have never travelled to Iran,” said Haubrich, a U.S.-based software engineer who has Iranian Zoroastrian heritage. “However, I still feel very connected to my Iranian heritage, and I am saddened by the plight of my people in Iran.”

Protests in Iran have driven Iranian Americans to seek help from U.S. officials in mediating the situation abroad. Iranian Americans told Straight Arrow News they feel a strong connection to their ancestral homeland, even among members of the diaspora who, like Haubrich, were not born in Iran.

Haubrich told SAN that his family, along with many other Iranians, sees the Islamic regime as stripping Iranians of their ancient culture and heritage, such as the right to practice traditional religions. 

“The current Islamic regime does not represent Iran or the Iranian people; that is why I do not refer to it as an Iranian regime,” Haubrich said. “The Islamic regime represents a foreign ideology that uses Iran as a resource to fund foreign terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. Iranians are hostages of this regime.”

A growing demographic in Iran echo Haubrich’s views. The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran, also known as GAMAAN, surveyed over 70,000 people in Iran anonymously to understand how people living inside one of the world’s strictest nations feel about their government. GAMAAN’s most recent research shows a “growing majority” of Iranians want a change from the repressive clerical regime to a “secular government.” Iranians’ rights activists note that desire for change is being fueled more in 2026 by the brutal crackdown. 

In the U.S., Haubrich told SAN that he and others feel a sense of survivor guilt watching crackdowns unfold. But, he said, he believes he can support the smooth transition to a democratic government by expressing the wants and needs of the Iranian people held within the regime’s confines. 

Iranian Americans are now urging U.S. leaders to assist a democratic transition of government in Iran, amid ongoing threats from Ayatollah Khamenei, and renewed nuclear talks. Several Iranian Americans told SAN they believe that U.S. influence in Iran strikes a delicate balance for the future of the whole Middle East and North Africa, or MENA, region. 

Iranian liberty activists believe that decisive action from the U.S. in 2026 could steer a safe transition toward a greater stability in the MENA region. However, drawn-out talks, Iranian Americans fear, could set the stage for a civil war in Iran. As talks continue, Iranian rights advocates continue to plead their case to the Trump administration, and ask that the U.S. not negotiate with the Islamic regime, according to Iranian International. 

This advocacy comes at a moment when Americans are debating which path forward is best for national security. 

Brutal crackdown on protests

Violence within Iran presents the greatest challenge to the current push for liberty. Protesters, originally spurred on in December 2025 by extreme economic hardship, have become more focused on the transition away from the clerical regime to a free government. 

To report on the fallout of these protests, and the brutal crackdowns that have followed, SAN interviewed regime protesters living inside Iran who, amid ongoing internet blackouts, collected archives of social media posts and videos highlighting the protest events from Jan. 8 and 9. Protestors have put together an archive of these videos on a Persian-language Telegram channel. 

A series of private cellphone footage archives reviewed by SAN document how police forces targeted civilians. In one such video, Bahar Shadmehri, a 17-year-old girl from Neyshabur, a city in the Khorasan Razavi Province, was killed by direct fire. Minors, including young children, have been named among those killed and missing, civilian witnesses told SAN. Civilians both inside and outside Iran look to citizen journalism outlets like Vahid Online, a Persian-language Telegram channel, for updates, as world leaders continue the running debate on Iran’s future.

SAN also interviewed several members of the Iranian diaspora — folks who have either moved to America themselves, or are first generation Iranian-Americans, like Haubrich. Through witness reports, which described Iranian hospital floors “piling up” with bodybags, videos that showed protestors being shot by gunmen perched on rooftops overlooking the streets and interviews conducted domestically, SAN compiled a portrait of what is at stake in this current moment. 

Human rights organizations report that the confirmed death toll in Iran is now above 6,000 people, twice the number of civilians killed during the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001. Local officials estimate that the true number of protest-related deaths could be 30,000. People at the scene believe that the number could be much higher. 

Rolling internet blackouts throughout Iran have further complicated the task of confirming those who are missing or have been killed, as family members struggle to reach one another.

Iran is a theocracy — a system of government in which the god of a religion is the government head. The deity is represented by a supreme leader. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, law and policy are enforced by the Ayatollah Khamenei and religious police, called clerics, or a ground volunteer force called the Basij Resistance Force.

Public debate in the States 

American civil politics split on supporting the Iranian transition. A January Quinnipiac University poll found that 70% of voters do not want the U.S. to take military action in Iran. Recent research shows that Americans are generally concerned about starting another war in the Middle East region, a possibility that researcher Dr. Ali Barker at Gulf International Forum called a “serious concern” that will have “uncontainable consequences” if escalation rises.

Recent polls by YouGov show that 76% of Americans feel that Iran’s current regime poses a security risk to America. However, Americans are less likely to support direct military intervention in the overthrow of Ayatollah Khamenei, although polls find Americans also anticipate this will happen and “won’t be surprised” when it does.

American debate over how the government should handle the situation in Iran is split down the partisan line. Democrats oppose military action in Iran, while Republicans support it, according to YouGov stats. 

A recent survey by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and Ipsos finds that Americans generally agree the clerical regime should not obtain nuclear weapons, and that America should enter an agreement to stop this from happening. 

Iran’s inflection point 

Because of the brutality of the regime toward civilians, unrest is stirring, and could soon militarize, said Reza Langari, a Texas-based university professor who fled Iran in 1978. 

“The Iranian diaspora believes that Iran’s current political climate has shifted to a potential civil war, needing international intervention to prevent this possibility,” Langari said.

Langari told SAN that Iranians see the extreme brutality of the current crackdown as a point of no return. Some, he said, have expressed a willingness to take up arms against the clerics. In his view, a swift and decisive intervention by the United States would change the trajectory of unrest to prepare the way for a smooth democratic transition.

“I hope that the American public understands that yes, nation building did not work in Iraq or Afghanistan, but Iranian Americans are not asking for nation building,” Langari told SAN. Instead, he said, the majority of his community feels decisive western action would enable the Iranian people to establish independent national will.

Further, Langari noted, Iran is not in danger of moving toward a power vacuum: The Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, son of the deposed Shah, is set to lead a transitional government, which would steer the nation toward setting up a permanent democracy to replace the clerical regime. 

This desire was echoed across several interviews; Iranians living in exile in the Western world believe they can have a strong advocating influence to support this transition, because of their deep connection to their ancestral homeland. 

The diaspora speaks 

Since the student revolution of 1979, the United States and Canada have hosted a large Iranian diaspora. U.S. census data taken after 2024, the first year Iranians were officially counted, estimates that over 500,000 Iranian Americans live in the States. The largest number live in California. 

As a growing demographic, Iranian Americans hope to have their voices heard from local community-based organizations to the U.S. legislature. In 2025, Arizona Representative Yassamin Ansari introduced legislation for the U.S. to formally recognize Iranian Heritage Month.

Calls for urgent international action

Across the West, Iranians are calling on the international community to take swift action. 

“Given the scale and urgency of the crimes taking place, this is no longer merely a diplomatic issue,” said Dr. Ashkan Gitipour, a physician who has been tracking the targeting of medics who aid protesters.

In an interview with SAN, Gitipour referenced a principle outlined in the United Nations’ office dedicated to genocide prevention.

“Under the principle of the Responsibility to Protect, when a state is unwilling or unable to protect its population — and is itself the perpetrator of mass killings — the responsibility to protect civilians shifts to the international community,” Gitipour told SAN. 

“What the Western world must understand is this: The main obstacle to a free Iran is not a lack of courage or unity among Iranians, but the continued political and economic accommodation of a regime whose survival depends on repression at home and destabilization abroad,” Gitipour continued. “Decades of appeasement and engagement have only prolonged executions, destruction and suffering.”

Now, he told SAN, he hopes for change.

The post What it feels like for Iranian Americans to watch a revolution appeared first on Straight Arrow News.

Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief