What these Iranian community leaders in Arizona think about the Iran war
Arizona’s Yassmin Ansari, the first Iranian-American Democrat elected to Congress, introduced legislation this week that would grant temporary protected status and work authorization to eligible Iranian nationals already living in the U.S. who are not citizens.
This state is estimated to be home to as many as 20,000 Iranian expats. Fearing repercussions from the family they’ve left behind, many are reluctant to speak out publicly against the Iranian government amid the war with the U.S.
But not these two locals who visited the KJZZ studios this week: Farzan Faramarzi and Donya Ziraksari, Iranian community leaders and activists here in Arizona.
FARZAN FARAMARZI: Hi, my name is Farzan Faramarzi. I’m a human rights activist. I came to the U.S. as a religious refugee 15 years ago.
DONYA ZIRAKSARI: Donya Ziraksari. Born and raised in Iran, moved to U.S. in 2007, also as a religious minority.
FARZAN FARAMARZI: Arizona is kind of a unique community. We have lots of Iranians live here. Some of them, like Donya and I, moved here like 10, 15, 20 years ago. Some of them living here for 50, 60 years. So, it’s a very diverse community.
PHIL LATZMAN: Do you feel powerless when you’re this far away from home?
DONYA ZIRAKSARI: Being extremely honest, some days I do feel powerless. No matter what we do, we are not getting anywhere. But then, we see all the support, all the love, not just from the government and the community that we live in, but also from just people, just individuals.
People reaching out saying, “We stand with the women of Iran. We stand with the people of Iran.”
PHIL LATZMAN: How has the community been affected since the war began?
FARZAN FARAMARZI: Yeah, so I still, I have to say, I still have families in Iran, and I need to mention that Iran has shut down the internet when the January event and uprising happened. They have done that so many times in the past 47 years, and usually when they shut down the internet, it means that they are killing people, and they don’t want any evidence to leak out.
And then when the internet came back up, you might think we were celebrating, but it is quite the opposite because when the internet came up, when they basically, the blackout was over, then the people, then people started like sending the evidence, the videos of the massacre.
PHIL LATZMAN: Have you been reluctant to speak up? And are you worried about the implications of family back home and what might happen to them if they find out?
DONYA ZIRAKSARI: Throughout the years, there has been this fear of my family is going to be killed or tortured. And that’s that’s the repercussion of me speaking out, for sure. I do have family back home, but I would say I get a lot of “you go girl” and “you stand up for us” more than “don’t do this, it’s going to cause us …”
I mean, yes, we’re scared, but like we also can’t stop. We need to keep going.
PHIL LATZMAN: So what what are you hearing about what is happening back home? The economic conditions, are they as dire as they seem? What are you hearing about what it’s like for the average Iranian these days?
FARZAN FARAMARZI: Well, the economy and the whole country is in shambles. Just imagine, we have like a one-digit inflation rate here in the U.S. and we feel the pain, and we keep complaining and whatnot. You know, I’ve talked to families that they’re like, “Hey, I haven’t eaten any kind of meat in a month.”
PHIL LATZMAN: When you hear President Trump continuously say a deal is near, the war will be over in days, it was a quick excursion, Iran has already been defeated, what do you think?
FARZAN FARAMARZI: Since March, President Trump mentioned the deal is near with Iran 37 times. So, I don’t think any deals would comes to fruition. You cannot deal with evil.
DONYA ZIRAKSARI: I think President Trump says what he needs, he wants, he believes the people need to hear. The taxpayers need to hear. Alternative to facts are facts that we give people just to shut them up, OK? And make them feel better. And I think that’s what the government of U.S. is doing.
I believe we do have the power as Americans. We do have the power to fight good. We just need to think about it as human to human instead of we’re American and they’re Iranian. And we need to act fast because this is a time-sensitive situation.