Iran: A War of Hope

An Iranian American immigrant reflects on why the war in her country feels like a sign of a better future ahead

By Sophia Cardona

Missiles flew across the sky of Iran’s capital on an early Saturday morning in February. It was the start of a new war, yet for many Iranians, it was also the start of a new hope as Israeli and U.S. forces launched airstrikes.

For years, many watched their country fall to a theocratic government that has imposed brutal practices upon its own people. But these missiles seemed to promise a change.

“The first hope was this: Oh, my God, everybody was happy. They were happy because they know they have hope. This kind of situation causes the government to go out,” or so Melina hopes.

On Feb. 28, a targeted attack organized by the United States and Israel killed Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei along with other high-level officials.

Moments after, large crowds covered the streets of Tehran and other cities to celebrate Khamenei’s death. An enormous sense of hope spread among people, as a suppressive regime was finally shaken, but not yet overthrown.

Melina, who requested a pseudonym for fear of retaliation, was born and raised in Tehran. During the 1979 revolution, she was just 14 years old. She watched her country go from a prosperous place to an unrecognizable one, stripped of freedom. Now, she hopes to live through another revolution, one that could return Iran to the version that lives in her memory from when she was a child.

“I remember that time, you know, before revolution… something similar to the United States. It was a good country, as I remember,” she said.

In 2000, she moved to Northeast Florida with her husband, marking the beginning of her life in the U.S. As of 2024, there were more than 750,000 Iranian Americans living in the country, according to the Pew Research Center. Many of them have now been confronted with a challenging reality involving two places they call home.

Since the start of the war, many have been watching the news closely as the fate of their country continues to be toyed with by the Trump administration. Violence and high-living costs have displaced thousands in the Middle Eastern country, and Americans are also feeling the impact.

This conflict serves as a reminder that with war not only comes violence, but also hope. Ever since the 1979 revolution, millions of Iranians have wished for the day the regime is ousted. And on Feb. 28, that wish came close to being granted.

The missiles were launched as a threat by the U.S. and Israel, which kick-started “Operation Epic Fury,” a mission to weaken Iran’s nuclear program. The administration has also made its efforts to dismantle the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has remained in power for 47 years.

While war is often an unpopular choice, many are willing to accept it as long as regime change is the outcome.

“People in Iran reached the dead end. ‘If you want to kill us, if you want to bomb in Iran, that’s okay, but just take the regime out,’” Melina said as she explained how many Iranians feel about the ongoing conflict.

Hope has progressively transitioned into desperation. To many, war is the only path to freedom. But is it the right one?

“They want to feel the war, the real war, because they think if the real war is happening, this government can go,” she said.

When diplomacy becomes an impossible task between countries, the justification for war becomes normalized. And the designation of right or wrong grows far more complicated.

“It’s through violence, because they are not the kind of people who you can talk to. They are not reasonable people. They just want to stay. That’s it. It doesn’t matter the price. If they want to kill people, they kill people to stay,” Melina said.

The “real war” has been felt across the world as thousands of people have been killed, and the walls of homes continue to be ripped apart. The conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran has dragged thousands of innocent people along the way.

Iran’s Ministry of Health says that over 3,375 people have been killed in US-Israeli attacks in Iran since the start of the war. Over 1,700 of those have been civilian deaths — that’s according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). The numbers keep climbing.

Though Melina lives in the U.S., the war feels eerily close to home as some of her family, including her parents, still live in Tehran. Power blackouts have become more common due to airstrikes, cutting communication with her parents for weeks at a time.

“I don’t know anything about my parents. Internet is cut, and sometimes they pay too much money in order to talk to me for five or 10 minutes. Also, my mom cannot talk freely by the phone. I said ‘mom, what is going on? Who did this? Who did that?’ She said she cannot talk because the government can listen. No freedom, it’s not good,” she said.

As she watches her country be hit with airstrikes from afar and through a screen, the fear over the future of her home and the safety of her family becomes more present in her day-to-day life.

“Can I do something? I don’t know,” she said. “How can I help them? Because I can’t even talk to them. It’s a very bad situation.”

From what she has been able to pick up on from short calls with family, Melina says that mainstream media is failing to cover the full picture of what is actually going on in her home country.

“Nobody knows what’s going on in Iran, nobody knows how many people are being killed in Iran every day,” she said. “I don’t want to hear something with the cover.”

Melina says the regime has increased executions of civilians, and peace has been completely disrupted.

Peace talks have frequently filled news headlines since the start of the conflict. So far, no ceasefire deals have been reached. However, that might be close to changing, as on May 24, the Trump administration confirmed to news outlets that a deal ending the war might be near.

In the U.S., many Americans call for the end of the war. But for many Iranians, war is the only hope they have left.

“Trump says peace for two weeks…they were mad in Iran. ‘No, why peace? Why would you stop?’” Melina said.

32.7% of Iranian Americans are in support of the war, according to a survey published in March by NIAC and ZOGBY. 67.3% of those in support said the war would make regime change more likely. However, those against it make up a much larger group, with 66.1% on the opposing side.

“Operation Epic Fury” not only created a war, but also a powerful sense of hope among Iranians. For a large group of them, hope is the one thing keeping up their fight, one that many had given up on long before.

Melina fears that failure to create regime change will only lead to more violence from the regime.

“If nothing happens and war stops, nothing happens and government stays, they going to kill more people. More people than ever,” she said.

More than 7,000 miles away, she feels the pain of seeing her country and her people go through daily instability and fear. Yet, she still holds onto the hope of one day returning to the Iran she once knew.

“United States helped me to reach to this point to be comfortable, but my home is really somewhere else. So I’d really like to go back to my country. I would really like that. Not this now, not this kind of country,” she said.

Though at the moment, the chances of returning to a pre-revolution Iran get slimmer by the day, as the country has not experienced any improvements. And with the end of the war supposedly near, that freedom many long for becomes more distant. As a result, a scary thought creeps in: will this war have been for nothing?

“The only hope they have is this. The real war for real freedom,” Melina said.