Members of the Iranian Graduate Student Association at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), said they have mixed emotions about the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran, calling the situation “tragic” but also a potential path toward regime change.

Nearly 800 people have died in Iran and 11 in Israel as of Tuesday afternoon, according to officials. Israeli authorities said most incoming missiles were intercepted. Early U.S.-Israeli strikes reportedly killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and former President Donald Trump urged Iranians to overthrow their government, though senior U.S. officials later said regime change was not the goal.

Donya Hamidi said she feels both grief and relief. “With one eye, we mourn for our loved ones… With the other eye, we feel hope. A free, democratic, and secular Iran will be an ally of the United States, not an enemy like the current regime. We, the people of Iran, are not the regime.”

Pahram Oveissi said many of his non-Iranian friends have asked whether Iranians are “celebrating” the U.S.-Israel military strikes. He stressed that while Iranians welcome the intervention, it is not a celebration of war.

“We are not asking for a devastating catastrophe to sweep the nation,” Oveissi said. “We want targeted strikes to weaken the regime’s repression apparatus and make way for a popular revolution. That’s exactly what is happening—military bases and the homes of regime leaders are being hit, not ordinary civilians.”

Trying to explain their position

The 2020 U.S. Census recorded 568,615 individuals who identified as Iranian, with the largest concentration—roughly 130,000 to nearly 138,000—living in California. According to World Population Review, a total of 16,597 people of Iranian descent live in Maryland, roughly about 0.27% of the state’s population.

It can be difficult to convey the Iranian perspective to Americans, the students said, noting that decades of domestic oppression and regional violence shape how many of them view the conflict.

“Some of the oppression that our people have been facing for the past almost half a century, it’s been really a nonstop wave, but also ongoing like kidnapping, rape and torture, of even kids,” said Parichehr Salimifard. “It’s not just that 100s of 1,000s of Iranians have been killed, but also the (death) of 100s of 1,000s of Syrians and civilians in Iraq, in Hezbollah, in Lebanon, has been funded by the regime.”

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians, Syrians, Iraqis, and Lebanese civilians have died because of the Iranian government’s actions, Salimifard said. U.S. troops suffered casualties from roadside bombs sponsored by the regime in Iraq, aimed at undermining efforts in Afghanistan as well.

“Without that context, it’s hard for outsiders to understand why many Iranians see targeted intervention differently than it might appear from afar,” he added.

Mohammad Eskandri and Mahdad Talebpour echoed that sentiment. Eskandri said, “People are happy for this world to happen, but they are not the ones inviting this war. We are just welcoming it.” Talebpour noted that Iranians abroad are focused on the regime, not civilians, and spoke of the generational trauma caused by the government.

The students also found it ironic that they’re the ones supporting this action, but get targeted by Trump’s supporters.

“We are, like, the most targeted immigrants, even though we are loving what he’s doing,” Talebpour said. “The target is actually the Islamic Republic, not the people of Iran. That’s what needs to be said to our non-Iranian friends. The people of Iran are not Islamaphobic, but we have Islamic trauma … Most of us, up to 25 years ago, practiced some of the Islamic prayers and even my family but they (the regime) tortured that out of us.”

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