I speak English and Farsi fluently, yet I have struggled to find the language to convey the weight of the emotions I have carried in recent months.
When initial reports emerged that the United States had struck Iran at the core of the Islamic Republic’s power, many of us in the Iranian diaspora felt something unexpected. Relief. Even hope. After 47 years of repression sustained by fear, censorship and violence, the possibility that this system would finally fall felt unreal. For a brief moment, Iranians allowed themselves to imagine a future shaped by possibility rather than survival. That hope did not survive the reality of war.