Consider This from NPR
Why some Iranian Americans back the war on their country of origin
29 Mar 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What recent events have escalated tensions in the Middle East?
It was a weekend of protests and military escalation. In the Middle East, an Iranian attack on an airbase in Saudi Arabia hit several aircraft and wounded more than a dozen U.S. troops. Yemeni Houthis, backed by Iran, entered the war. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that his country would widen its invasion of southern Lebanon.
All of this as President Trump weighs ending the war he started or extending it by ordering newly arrived Marines and paratroopers onto Iranian shores.
Our daughter's in the Army, currently stationed in South Korea. And right now, the military boots on the ground possibility is the biggest thing in my head right now.
That's Karina Kagan speaking to member station KCUR in Kansas City on Saturday. She was one of many protesters who turned out across the country at the third No Kings demonstration against President Trump. The idea of a ground invasion of Iran is also divisive for members of the Iranian diaspora.
Ground troops is very scary. American troops could lose support from U.S. side. You could get a lot of casualties on the American front, and that can make the public here completely against the Iranians.
That's Sahand Kodakian at an anti-regime protest on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Consider this. At the heart of the war in the Gulf is a question about the fate of the Iranian government. What do some Iranians in the United States want that government to look like, and why?
From NPR, I'm Adrian Ma. Listen to NPR News Now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
It's Consider This from NPR.
Here in the U.S., the war with Iran has prompted many Iranian Americans to take to the streets to express their opposition to the Iranian regime. The past month has seen demonstrations in L.A., New York, and on Sunday, in D.C. Ramteen Arablui, co-host of NPR's history podcast Throughline, was at that rally.
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Chapter 2: Why are Iranian Americans protesting against the regime?
You have to have been living under this fascist regime so that you understand what is this.
Interesting. Ramteen, earlier this year, you did an episode of ThruLine on the anti-government protests that swept Iran at the end of 2025 and earlier this year. How do you see today's actions fitting into that history?
So I think a lot of what we're seeing today and what we saw at the protest comes out of that movement and the frustration many people had or anger people had at the way the Islamic Republic responded to those protests. By, you know, firing on protesters and killing, you know, the numbers not even actually agreed upon, but many thousands of protesters in the process.
And I think what we're also seeing is a real debate about what the future of Iran is going to be. And everyone we spoke today, basically everyone, wants Reza Pahlavi, the son of the king who was overthrown in 1979, to return as what they call as a transitional leader. But when you ask them, like, why, why do you want the son of a former dictator to be back in power?
Their answer seems to really come from a sense of nostalgia about what it was like to be in Iran before the Islamic revolution. They look back at that time with nostalgic feelings. And this is what Holly Dagress, an expert from the Washington Institute, told me when I asked her that same question.
I remember Iranians used to be like, at the time of the Shah, when they wanted to talk about when things were better. And I think that nostalgia has only grown because of the access to information. There's documentaries about pre-revolutionary Iran. There's also all these nice pictures and photos that go viral.
I mean, of course, a lot has changed in Iran since you published that episode.
Yes, definitely. I mean, as listeners will know, the U.S. and Israel have now conducted a massive air attack, which is ongoing. Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has been killed. But that anti-regime feeling... that was really alive back in January, especially for Iranian Americans, that's still very much alive.
And the thing is, people seem to understand, the people we asked today, that the U.S. and Israel are not necessarily doing this to help the Iranian people. I asked one protester named Ramin that very same question. He didn't want to give us his last name because he said he feared reprisal from the government in Iran if he gave it to us. But I asked him that question directly.
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