Here & Now

Iranians in Wisconsin Share Worries on the Middle East War

Frederica Freyberg:
Watching and living the war from afar. That’s what Iranians in Wisconsin face as they worry and wonder about family and friends there cut off from communication. “Here & Now” reporter Steven Potter spoke with two Iranian people in Milwaukee about being so disconnected from loved ones during these times, and the hopes they have for their homeland after the war.

Steven Potter:
Watching the war in Iran unfold from thousands of miles away is causing a lot of worry for Wisconsin residents like Zara Fakhri and Ali Soltani. Communication with loved ones still in Iran is infrequent at best.

Zara Fakhri:
It’s because of the blackout. There’s no way to call them. So they’re calling us directly by the phone lines. And the quality of the call is terrible. What they say is always that we’re — we are okay. Everything is fine.

Steven Potter:
Have you been in contact with friends and family that you have in Iran?

Ali Soltani:
Yes. Internet is cut off, right? So my sister just yesterday through landline had called me. They all have moved to smaller cities, so they’re not in Tehran anymore. Even in the small cities, a couple places where — these are the garrisons and security forces, places that have been hit. She knew about those. But Tehran is really a lot of people hear a lot of loud noises, the bombing and scare some people of course.

Steven Potter:
Fakhri and Soltani have different feelings about the United States and Israel beginning the war in Iran and removing the country’s supreme leader from power.

Zara Fakhri:
It was the last option for us. At first, we were so happy because of the intervention that we were waiting for. After that, we got really happy and thrilled because of the death of the Khomeini. But we all knew that it’s not just one person, it’s systematic. We cannot say that and topple that government down just by killing one person.

Ali Soltani:
We have always opposed foreign war. It’s a very brutal regime. So some people, because they were fed up, they said, “Oh, United States come and attack.” That kind of mentality. But foreign interference will never end up well in the long run.

Steven Potter:
But Fakhri and Soltani do agree that it should be the Iranian people who decide who leads their homeland, and it should not be the leaders of other countries who choose Iran’s next government. Who should lead Iran?

Zara Fakhri:
Whoever Iranian people inside Iran and Iranian people outside of Iran agreeing with.

Ali Soltani:
We want the U.S., the international community, to let the Iranians — after 120 years of fighting for freedom, we don’t want to go back to another dictatorship. It doesn’t matter how you sugarcoat it. It’s a dictatorship. We don’t want to go to one man rule. We don’t want no clergy. We don’t want no Shah. We want a non-nuclear, secular, democratic republic based on rule of law, that if you don’t like somebody, you can vote them out, right? Just like U.S., just like France, just like many democratic countries.

Steven Potter:
What resolution are you hoping for in the end?

Zara Fakhri:
Getting rid of Islamic regime. Iranian people doing their job to make the country free and having a secular government and better place and showing the world what is real Iran and what is real Iranian people, and how it could be a better world with peaceful country in the Middle East. That’s what we are looking for.

Ali Soltani:
We want the U.S. and every other country to recognize our right to choose our own form of government. That is what’s dear to us. And that’s what actually, in the long run, is for the benefit of Iran and the international community.

Steven Potter:
Reporting from Milwaukee, I’m Steven Potter for “Here & Now.”