US-based critics of Iran's government say they fear retribution while in exile, as well as growing anti-immigrant sentiment under Trump.
twitterwhatsappcopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoNew York City, United States – Roughly 12,200 kilometres, or 7,600 miles, separate businessman and activist Roozbeh Farahanipour from his native Iran. But even that distance is not enough for the 54-year-old to feel completely safe.
Since 2000, Farahanipour has lived in exile in the United States, having fled a death sentence in Iran. He left behind Marz-e Por Gohar, the Iranian opposition party he founded.
But escaping Iran has not meant he escaped the threats he faced. After resettling in the Los Angeles area, Farahanipour remembers there was one seven-month period when it seemed like his car tyres were slashed every few weeks.
Then there was another incident in 2022, when he called on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to condemn Iran's violent crackdown on protesters.
Farahanipour later learned that, during his testimony, gunfire had shattered the door of one of his restaurants, the Persian Gulf cafe. He suspects both cases had to do with his activism.
"You can sleep with one eye open, one eye closed, and you feel like you are not safe," Farahanipour said. But, he added, it's the same in Iran. "That's 90 million people in Iran [who are] not safe."
Still, Iranian dissidents in the US are facing new uncertainties since the country joined Israel in a war against Iran on February 28.
Some fear the heightened tensions with Iran might compromise their safety in the US. Others worry the war might lead to hostile attitudes towards immigrants and Iranian Americans, who make up the largest Iranian diaspora community in the world, with a population of more than 413,000.
Negar Razavi, a scholar at Princeton University’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, described the sentiment among dissidents as an atmosphere of “dual fear”.
“There is a sense that nowhere is really safe for them," she told Al Jazeera. "They're neither safe here, nor are they safe back home."
Even in the US, there are no guarantees of sanctuary, according to Razavi. She pointed out that, as recently as January, the administration of US President Donald Trump deported a group of Iranians back to Iran, despite concerns they may face persecution.
It was the third such flight, following a September deportation that included approximately 120 people and a December expulsion involving more than 50.
"The fact that the Trump administration has deported over a hundred Iranians, most of them refugees and asylum seekers, has made a lot of people scared," Razavi said.
Roozbeh Farahanipour displays protest signs in the window of the Persian Gulf cafe, part of the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Westwood, in 2024 [Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo]Roozbeh Farahanipour displays protest signs in the window of the Persian Gulf cafe, part of the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Westwood, in 2024 [Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo]Transnational threats
Farahanipour was among the Iranians in the US who cheered the war's initial strikes.
On the first day of the war, the US and Israel announced they had killed Ali Khamenei, who had served as Iran's supreme leader since 1989. Farahanipour celebrated the news with a toast.
“I grabbed a bottle of champagne, opened it and drank it,” he said. “And anybody that came to congratulate me, I poured the champagne for them.”
But Farahanipour has his doubts about the war as it stretches past its fourth week. Iran has reportedly named Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as the country's new leader.
For Farahanipour, it is as if the conflict simply "replaced the old Khamenei with the new Khamenei". He fears that dissidents in the US could find their family and financial interests in Iran targeted as retribution.
Razavi, the Princeton researcher, also noted that, though critics in the US might be more insulated from the reach of Iran's armed forces, their family members in Iran remain vulnerable.
Since its rise to power in 1979, Iran's Islamic Republic has also made persistent threats against dissidents living abroad.
Some of those have resulted in assassination attempts. On January 28, for instance, a federal judge in New York sentenced a Brooklyn man to 15 years in prison for attempting to kill exiled Iranian activist and journalist Masih Alinejad. Prosecutors in the US accused Iran of orchestrating the plot.
Sardar Pashaei, a former champion wrestler, has worked with Alinejad. He left Iran in 2010 after facing "years of investigations" for his activism, including a push to support female athletes.
But Pashaei told Al Jazeera that he too was targeted while in the US after he and Alinejad led a campaign to protest the arrest and execution of a fellow wrestler, Navid Afkari.
The death threats, Pashaei said, "never stop". And his brother was tortured by the Iranian government in 2023, an incident he believes is linked to his activism work.
"This is the price if you stand against this regime," Pashaei explained. "Even when you live in the United States.”
Demonstrators wave Iranian 'lion and sun' flags and celebrate the US and Israeli attack on Iran in Los Angeles, California, on February 28 [Jill Connelly/Reuters]Demonstrators wave Iranian 'lion and sun' flags and celebrate the US and Israeli attack on Iran in Los Angeles, California, on February 28 [Jill Connelly/Reuters]'Violence begets violence'
There are steps the US government could take to protect dissidents, in and outside the country, according to Razavi, the Princeton scholar.
For starters, the US could provide asylum to those seeking political safety. But that would mean reversing course on Trump's hardline immigration restrictions, which include a ban on Iranians entering the US.
Razavi said US politicians should also curb the Islamophobic rhetoric that has proliferated since the war began.
Representative Andy Ogles, for instance, recently posted that "Muslims don't belong in American society". Another lawmaker, Representative Randy Fine, also published a string of Islamophobic remarks, calling to "deport them ALL".
The "escalated vitriol" surrounding the war raises the possibility of violence and vigilantism, according to Razavi. She pointed to an example that unfolded right across the US border, in Canada.
On March 16, two people were charged with the murder of Iranian dissident Masood Masjoody in British Columbia. The two suspects in the case had reportedly been in a dispute with Masjoody, who accused them of loyalty to the Khamenei government.
“The more we don't trust each other and the more we think so-and-so is working as an agent of the government or so-and-so is going to use violence against us, the more we're actually going to create the conditions of violence," Razavi said.
She added that she fears the war will ultimately not make Iranians in the US or elsewhere safer.
“If we truly believe in the wellbeing of Iranians, whether abroad or at home, war is not going to lead us in that path,” Razavi said. “It's only leading to more violence because violence begets violence.”
Farahanipour likewise believes a protracted war could potentially benefit the existing Iranian government: "As the first supreme leader said, war is always a blessing for this regime.”
He believes that the US should withdraw from Iran and allow change to come from within.
"They should let the Iranian people take over their own future,” Farahanipour said.
Recently, Farahanipour said his seven-year-old son, Damavand, asked if they could visit Iran together. The child is named for Iran's highest peak, which Farahanipour hopes to one day show him.
But Farahanipour believes safety in and from Iran remains a distant prospect. “I don’t think so,” Farahanipour told his son. “I don’t think that’s going to happen soon.”
