The Absurd Nature of Diaspora
A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with a Russian friend regarding the display of the Russian diaspora in Sean Baker's "Anora". I was curious whether the movie represented an authentic picture of that community, or fell into the same trap of anti-Soviet/Russia propaganda. He said that the Russian diaspora in the movie is relatively valid based on his own experience. Most of these people who immigrated before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, still have the same picture of Russia since then and there is a massive gap between their notion and the reality of current-day Russia. It feels like when you immigrate, the last snapshot of the country in your mind will thrive to be the only image left without any further modification in most cases.
I think the bulk of the Iranian diaspora suffers from the same sensation. A large group of people immigrated after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to the USA and Europe and since then, their connection to Iran has gotten less and less every day which is very understandable. The lack of access to local media and the absence of what we now call "social media", not in a sense that there is censorship, but in a way that you're not on the same pace with the pop culture and current affairs. Furthermore, the concept of "Free Iran" for some classes of Iranian diaspora is specified with the maximum defeat of the country (not only the regime) in the hope of a better future so they can brag about their "Persian roots" but not truly taking part in the tricky procedure of the rebuild.
Since the war between Iran and Israel (or better to say "The Invasion of Israel") broke out, many of the Iranians in social media, mainly Twitter (aka X) are discussing arguments and siding with strategies that I can't even consider. While I referred to the Pro-War controversy in the last post, I didn't actually think that it might get practical, but guess what? There have been Iranians in Europe, Canada, and Australia who waved the Israeli flag and chanted death to the Islamic Republic regime. While I do agree with the shortcomings and authoritarian essence of the Islamic Republic, after all, I left the country because I couldn't get along with it, but I don't think either Israel or the USA are the significant peacemakers in the world. We don't even need to see what went on in Libya, Serbia, and Latin America, but check the political and economic state and social collapse of our two neighbors, Iraq and Afghanistan, and how our trustworthy peacemakers brought anything but peace to their tables.
Apart from that, the Iranian diaspora ain't the people who will suffer the most during this war. For sure, we all have friends and families in Iran, but at the same time, we are not at risk of death and what is more dangerous than that? A lot of the Iranian diaspora doesn't understand that taking sides with warmongers such as Netanyahu and Trump, will not benefit the people who live inside the country. There is indeed the chance of regime change and Khamenei's overthrow, but is this the best option that we have while being a Middle Eastern country and having the Taliban on one side and other radical cults? I don't think so.