[March 3rd, 2026 - processed response]
Spoiler: life is not binary, this gets messy.
I wish the Iranian dead were alive so they could have seen him die. I wish they were here so we could celebrate this moment together. I mourn them and I honor them. Which feels dark, surreal, and almost taboo, given the islamic republic’s own obsession with martyrdom. Wild isn’t it? How exposure to prolonged evil is capable of tarnishing even those who oppose it. Being alive and morally conscious in this geopolitical hellscape, a new profound feeling crystalizes: the hardest thing I’ve ever done was hope for a free Iran.
To my fellow westerners, imagine the politicized murder that affected you most. Renée Good? Charlie Kirk? George Floyd? Imagine in the moment of experiencing this great injustice, this overwhelming powerlessness, you hit the streets to be with likeminded folks who are also battling life’s inherent unfairness. And as you’re out there attempting to make your existence known, people around you are being slaughtered by your government, or arrested to be tortured then publicly executed later. Maybe they got your girlfriend. Maybe your brother. Maybe you actually don’t go out, because you know better, but your child still believed in protest. And now you’ll never see them again. A person you loved has become a head on a spike, a warning.
Okay so take that experience. Now multiply it times infinity over half a century. Every single Iranian or member of the diaspora knew one, three, six, ten people who were imprisoned or killed by the extremists who took over our homeland. It shapes our every waking moment. Our every decision. Personal. Professional. Spiritual.
For me? My mom’s uncle looms largest. My grandfather’s brother was hanged for being baha’i shortly after the islamic revolution. He was a good man who loved an inconvenient god. His belief was pure and he paid for it with his life. My mother became a religious refugee at sixteen and came to America, where she met my father, who served in the Iranian military then came to America just before the hostage crisis. Ten years later I was born an American, to Iranian parents, and have lived my whole life attempting to live up to the pressure of that privilege.
I don’t believe in god. (This is relevant, I swear.) My dad hates when I state my atheism clearly and publicly. Not because he is religious. But because the men who took over his homeland are. And if my beliefs do not align with theirs, it becomes dangerous for me to visit the place he still thinks of as home. And if too many people hear my inconvenient beliefs, it starts to become dangerous for me to exist. When I published my novel, my dad read it and told me he couldn’t believe how much better he knew me. I realized that that was not entirely his fault. There were truths in that book that I was hesitant to share with him because I was worried it would reposition his connection to his homeland — or worse — hurt his perception of me as his son and a son of Iran. That is how deeply the regime’s fear tactics and control are engrained in even the most successful, strategic, and thoughtful members of our community.
Khamenei was the architect of that control. He took Khomeini’s revolution and transformed it into the world’s only functioning theocracy. But its function was not enlightened or spiritual in the slightest. It was to dominate the region, and its own people, into submission. Khamenei led this maniacally repressive (and regressive) government costumed in the robes of piety but fueled by a network of unholy clerics, corrupt politicians, and murderous military leaders. So when he was killed…. finally… killed… it was disbelief. Then shock. Then elation. For millions of us. It was momentary bliss. Then grief, anxiety, shame, and worst of all, context, started to sink in. At least for me they did.
The motivations of foreign intervention are always dubious, but this is worst case scenario.
The leader of the United States of America is a morally bankrupt man determined to dominate his region, and his own people, into submission. Does that sound familiar? The parallels are many, a power hungry strategist hard pivoting into politics by harnessing the power of populism and espousing what his followers believe to be innate truths, but those parallels became tangible in Trump’s second term, when he shifted from Khomeini into Khamenei mode. He pardoned every single member of his MAGA cult who defaced our nation on January 6th and then he filled his cabinet with sycophants who have no qualification to be there other than their ability to fellate. These are the people “making decisions.”
I can’t begin to list the ways Trump has morally degraded my country, or we’d be here forever, but the way he has effectively neutered every branch of government is democracy-experiment ending. And the way the majority of my fellow citizens have allowed it, because he gives them something they want… is astonishing. I used to wonder how Iran, a country of 90 million brilliant, nuanced, creative beings allowed their country to become what it became. Now I know.
I’m not even going to touch Netanyahu, out of respect for the hell my jewish friends have endured and the insane rise of antisemitism in the left, but something is clearly rotten in the state of Israel too.
Which brings me to Iran. Oh, Iran. Oh, diaspora. I think my heart fractured irreparably in 2010. For those unfamiliar, please google The Green Movement. Google Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Hell, google Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri. None of these men were saviors, but they were deeply inconvenient for the regime and, importantly, they were home grown. The Iranian resistance to islamic authoritarianism has existed since 1979. By 2009, reformists had amassed massive support and were expected to finally win power. When they lost, in a heavily contested/fraudulent election, MILLIONS of people flooded the streets. But no foreign power aided that movement, and even if the west wanted to (which they really didn’t) the reformists had strong anti-imperialist beliefs and did not court intervention in the one moment it could have been most effective.
By 2010, the extremists squashed the reformist uprising and opposition leaders were placed under house arrest for life. The lasting effect of this moment in history? The regime was emboldened. It took to killing protestors more openly and more often, during the widely reported Women Life Freedom protests, and again in the protests last month where they massacred over 30,000 people.
So I’m glad Khamenei is dead. Unfortunately, he was not killed in order to liberate the Iranian people. This war is a deadly distraction tactic performed by powerful men with a LOT to lose. Trump and Netanyahu are doing anything they can to keep themselves from sinking into a pile of crimes so deep it will suffocate them. Trump keeps asking the Iranian people to take over their government. Which people? (Pahlavi? The diaspora rejoices, but Iranians are less trusting. More on that later.) There is no actual plan. There are only air strikes. All the while, the islamic republic is violently flailing. Killing and bombing anyone they can. They are all creating a war in hopes of ending it so they can shore up more power for themselves.
Let me put it plainly: these men are fucking losers.
“You’re so naive, Arya. They’re not losers. They’re literally the most powerful men on the planet. Besides, sometimes you need a bully to beat a bully.” This argument is short-sighted and, frankly, weak-minded. I’ve never bought it and I never will. Let me use this overly simplistic framing of the situation to explain why. A reigning playground bully is sometimes replaced by another bully, sure, but to banish a bully for good, you need to band together with a group of non-conformist kids. In adult politics, we call that building a coalition of allies.
Real strength is not found in conflict. Real strength is found by manifesting prosperity while allowing for the differences inherent in coalition. That shit is just so much harder. But the world is currently run by weak strongmen who will do anything to stop that worldview from getting any daylight. Putin, Xi, Netanyahu, Trump, Modi, Khamenei, Kim, Bashar, Orban, MBS… they have repurposed the power of the information age to dismantle the authority of truth. No one knows what to believe because our minds are facing a relentless attack from fiction posing as fact. The only way to defeat them is to reckon with the reality of a complex world and reject their simplified game entirely.
So what happens next? I wish it were easy. Speaking for myself, which is impossible to do without channeling a bit of that famous Persian ego, I want the Iranian people to be a part of the solution to this global problem. The magic words, “secular democracy,” are being chanted by Reza Pahlavi in front of every camera he can find. Which are the right words! But anyone that knows Iranian history knows this might not be the guy. He is rising to the occasion of history, and I truly commend that, but (as if I haven’t pissed off enough people writing this) the diaspora needs to seriously reckon with the fact that this man’s father was contentious and ultimately lost the support of the majority of his own people. If Pahlavi is the one we choose now – he needs to do exactly what he is saying he will do. Help Iran transition out of the darkest moment in our history. Then gtfo.
Still, I hope for a free Iran.
We deserve it. They deserve it.
But it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
[Feb 28th, 2026 - immediate response]
if that evil motherfucker khamenei is actually dead, this is one of the most important and emotionally dissonant moments in the life of any iranian person you have ever met.
give us a second to process before you jump to make a talking point out of it. iranian people all over the world are about to shape their future. our nightmare might actually be over and our dreams do not yet know how to become tangible.
many of us have been waiting for this moment as long as we have been alive. many of us absolutely hate the way it happened.
the joy and the confusion are absolutely immense.