Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Mohammad Ehsan Khatami is a 19-year-old Duke University student and native of Western Pennsylvania. As the son of parents born and raised in Tehran, he has long had his feet in two worlds.
When the Wexford resident traveled to Iran in May, he saw firsthand the effects of the escalating tensions between Iran and the United States, including the hardships faced by Iranians and their resilience in the face of deprivation and uncertainty.
Mr. Khatami, who is studying electrical and computer engineering at Duke, feels a strong connection to Iran, through his parents, relatives and friends.
“Ever since I began wrestling in middle school, my parents always reminded me that hard work was a part of the Iranian experience,” Mr. Khatami said.
“This is the first time I’ve been to Iran in 12 years and the most important goal I set for myself was to see and try the Varzesh-e-Bastani,” a form of martial arts, he said.
Also called Pahlawani, it is based on traditional Iranian athletics and derived from ancient training of warriors. It takes place in a domed structure called a Zur-khani and the exercises and fighting moves are combined with music and chanting.
“I was an absolute rookie, but my countrymen took me in,” he said.
But his visit has increased his concern about the lack of communication between residents of the two countries and the difficulty of keeping in touch with his family and friends in Iran, particularly in light of new sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump.
“The Iranian government restricts access to many large websites, including YouTube and Facebook,” he said. “It is noticeably more difficult to access outside information from here,” he wrote in an email.
Mr. Khatami, who has dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, said travel restrictions make it impossible for his friends to visit the United States and that he is subject to being drafted into the military in Iran, so “visiting Iran will be impossible for me in the near future.”
“Service for citizens is mandatory. I am a student currently, which is why I am not being forced to serve. But if I travel to Iran in the future after college, I may be forced to serve in the military.”
Mr. Trump’s recent executive order that hits Iran’s supreme leader and senior officials with additional financial sanctions is a concern, Mr. Khatami said. Mr. Trump cited “the hostile conduct of the regime,” including its shooting down of a U.S. drone that the Iranian government claimed was in Iran’s airspace. U.S. officials said the drone was in international airspace.
The new sanctions will affect ordinary Iranians — who live in an economy already staggering under rising prices and inflation from previous sanctions — not the rulers, Mr. Khatami said.
“Further financial instability would be unimaginable and is something no population deserves to face,” he said. “The people of Iran want freedom and peace with America, but they don’t have the power to achieve these goals.”
The fate of Iran’s people is in the hands of leaders in Washington and Tehran, he said.
A U.S. attack on Iran could benefit Iran’s leaders, said Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, associate professor and director of the international development program at the University of Pittsburgh. “The United States would be giving Iran a gift by attacking it right now. Because by attacking the government, it will unite the people around the government in Tehran.”
But Ms. Murtazashvili, who explores questions of governance, security and development across Central and South Asia and the former Soviet Union, doesn’t think the U.S. will go to war with Iran. In her view, Iran’s leaders are trying to provoke the U.S. because their government is suffering a crisis of legitimacy among the Iranian people.
She said the imposition of new sanctions by the Trump administration likely will exacerbate poverty and increase internal opposition to the regime. “But I don’t think that regime change is coming anytime soon to Iran,” she said.
The possibility of armed conflict between the two countries is very worrisome to Mr. Khatami. It would waste American and Iranian lives and resources for no reason, he said.
Conditions in Iran would get significantly worse, he said, “and the Iranians would certainly be faced with a humanitarian crisis. Iran is already struggling to provide aid to flood victims throughout the nation. War would ensure further chaos and loss of human life.”
His experience participating in Pahlawani reinforced his ties with his Iranian family and friends and showed him their strength, he said.
“In my entire life, I’ve never been more proud of my people. Despite the weight of the world on their shoulders, lies in the media, and murderous American sanctions, the members of Polad Zur-Khane in Shiraz gather each night to represent the true Iran. A country of resilience, generosity, love, and also damn good grub.”
Humayoon Babur is an Afghan journalist working at the Post-Gazette this summer on a Daniel Pearl Foundation and Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship.
“The United States would be giving Iran a gift by attacking it right now. Because by attacking the government, it will unite the people around the government in Tehran.” Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili
Uninformed, irrelevant and not based on facts! Read Ayatollah Khomeini’s “letter” accepting the UN-mediated ceasefire that put an end to the hostilities between Iran and Iraq. In there, Ayatollah Khomeini clearly states Iranians are not willing to send their children to the war fronts. That was more than three decades ago. Currently, things are much worse for the regime. The regime has very little support among Iranians. And the greatest majority of Iranians can’t wait to see the regime gone.
Young Iranian-Americans are smart, not into wars and love their mother land. They are the furthest thing from the run-of-the-mill BiBi Basijis that we encounter here daily.
In that case, young Iranian-Americans must hate the regime in Tehran and want it relegated to the dustbin of history. The biggest reasons: Provoking Saddam Hussein into a war and prolonging the war for as long as they could.
Iranians got lucky when Saddam acquired long-range missiles that could reach Tehran. As soon as the Iraqis started hitting Tehran, the regime’s authorities, who had sent hundreds of thousands of Iranians to their death, decided to accept the UN-mediated ceasefire. Otherwise, the war would’ve lasted several more years.