OUT OF IRAN: Five extraordinary Iranian-Americans love both countries but loathe their leaders' war talk
Bob Cooper
Sunday, July 15, 2007
No one reads the headlines about the U. S.-Iran imbroglio -- which swings wildly between threats of war and flirtations with diplomacy -- more closely than Iranian Americans, who number 50,000 in the Bay Area. For them, Iran is not part of the "axis of evil," it's where a grandmother, brother or favorite cousin lives.
Most arrived here with the late-1970s diaspora, escaping the tyranny of the Ayatollah Khomeini only to face harassment by Americans who blamed them for the 444-day hostage crisis. Years later they were caught in the post-9/11 net of suspicion and scrutiny against all Middle Easterners, despite no hint of a connection between Iran and the tragedy. Read more.