America's largest Iranian diaspora is at a crossroads

Politico

4 hours ago

Earlier this week, the Iranian-American Democrats of California held an emergency meeting to discuss the organization's next steps as President Donald Trump weighs whether to join Israeli strikes against Iran.
Leaders of the group had already hit the phones in the hours and days after Israel launched its first strikes on June 12, calling all the members of the state's congressional delegation, including California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, and urging them to prevent U.S. involvement in the attacks.
For Southern California's Iranian diaspora, the nation's largest, the fast-moving conflict represents a critical moment for a politically and culturally diverse community that hasn't always gravitated to American political debates, or done so as a coherent bloc. It's also a potentially significant moment for Schiff and Padilla, who may be forced to weigh in on a deeply contentious foreign policy debate that could pit Democratic factions against one another.
'This is the time for the California politicians to speak up,' said Sudi Farokhnia, the Los Angeles-based president of the IADC. 'And not just speak up, but speak up fast and be very precise in making sure that they hold Trump to the rules and laws of this country.'
More than one-third of the nearly 400,000 Iranian immigrants in the United States are in the LA area, and more than half live in California. Polling conducted by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans last year found Iranian-Americans nearly divided on the 2024 presidential election — 45 percent nationwide backed Kamala Harris, compared with 41 percent for Trump.
In heavily-Democratic California, Democratic-aligned members of the community are hoping to influence the state's Democratic elected officials.
But a diverse set of backgrounds — from Muslims to Jews to Christians to Zoroastrians — and what some Iranian-American activists describe as a hesitance to publicly engage in a deeply complex issue has left the community with a relatively subdued presence in politics.
And the current situation puts Iranian-Americans, many of whom fled Iran after the 1979 revolution, in a bind. They've been highly critical of the Iranian regime and would love to see it fall from power, but remain divided on what should be done to make that happen — namely, whether U.S. military involvement should be part of it.
'We are at a fall of the Berlin Wall moment in history,' said Sam Yebri, a former LA city council candidate who's been active in Iranian-American and Jewish-American organizations. 'We know that it is time for this regime to fall and for there to be a free and democratic Iranian government.'
Others, including officials in the IADC, are pushing California officials to back Sen. Bernie Sanders' No War Against Iran Act, as well as legislation from Rep. Ro Khanna and other House members that would block the administration from engaging in 'unauthorized hostilities' with Iran.
'The Iranian diaspora across the globe, particularly here in Southern California, has been calling for democracy in Iran and the oppressive authoritarian government there,' said Alex Mohajer, vice president of the IADC and a former state Senate candidate. 'And yet also we don't want military intervention, and we don't want military strikes on our loved ones.'
Speaking with CNN on Wednesday, Schiff reiterated his belief in Israel's right to defend itself but sharply criticized Trump for considering U.S. military action without authorization from Congress. A spokesperson for Padilla did not respond to a request for comment.
For the Iranian-American community in Southern California, the conflict between Iran and Israel may accelerate a shift toward more widespread political involvement. Mohajer said the Woman Life Freedom protests of 2022, which launched in Iran and worldwide in the wake of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death in the custody of Iran's morality police, 'really ignited the community, and you've seen a real, newfound sense of activism.'
But if Amini's death served as something of a wake-up call for young Iranians in the diaspora, activists say, now that they are engaged, they are more likely to be vocal — and speak out more forcefully for government officials, academic institutions and other organizations to push back on the Iranian regime's human rights abuses.
Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona Nazarian, the first Iranian-American woman to serve in that role, argued the Israeli strikes were important in preventing the 'grave danger' of a nuclear-armed Iran. But she also said the regime needs to be brought down from within Iran.
'True change in Iran,' she said in a statement, 'must come from its own people.'
This reporting first appeared in California Playbook. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every weekday.