‘I can’t explain the level of anxiety:’ Iranian MU student, happy to see ayatollah’s end, worries for loved ones back home
Nia Hinson
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A University of Missouri graduate student and Iran native says she’s been living in a constant state of panic following this weekend’s joint attack on Iran.
The student wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of possible retribution from the country against her family who still lives there. She said the news has brought her a level of anxiety she’s never experienced before. She said that anxiety is something she’s felt over the past two months as conflict in the area ramped up.
“I cannot explain the level of anxiety because I cannot sleep. I cannot do my routine, my workout. It’s even hard for me to focus on my studies,” she said. “I’m very worried about my country, about my people, especially those historical sites because I believe that this regime is capable of doing every dirty work.”
President Donald Trump on Saturday announced the US-Israel joint attack on Iran that killed the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It was around 4 a.m. central time Saturday when she got the news. She said she woke up in the middle of the night to her phone flooded with calls and text messages to let her know about the news. She said the news made her feel like her heart was beating out of her chest and it took her about 10 minutes to process what had happened.
It was something she said she had already been anticipating, even calling her sister the day prior to the attack and warning her to be prepared for the strikes soon. She then talked to her cousin who lives in another country who confirmed the news to her and felt a sense of weight lifted from her shoulders, leading to a feeling of mixed emotions.
“I am happy because we were waiting for this military intervention and the first day that they could you know, kill the supreme leader who was in charge of killing thousands of Iranians,” she said. “So when I saw the news that he was dead, I think it was one of the rare moments that I was so happy and I believe many Iranians are happy.”
Communication with her family has also made the process that much more difficult to deal with from thousands of miles away.
She said the Islamic Regime has shut down the internet and land lines in the country, making it impossible to talk to most of her loved ones due to poor connection. That’s also contributed to the feeling of anxiousness due to her parents being elderly, but she said the feeling of being prepared helps ease that.
“Since the revolution has started, I was telling my mom to please buy food, buy your medication, be ready, prepare yourself. But other than that, I’m not worried because I know they are safe,” she said.
Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi with Missouri S&T also said that students have been in shock following the last month of events in Iran.
“People are in a zombie mode, right? You go about your life but in the back of your head, you are saying ‘wait a minute, how do I digest everything that has been happening?’ Boroujerdi said. “So, it is one of those really horrible moments in that sense having to deal with first, that massacre of last month and now dealing with the repercussions of this war.”
The student also said she trusts President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisions to carry out the attacks. She said she hopes to serve as a voice for the people in Iran who are being tortured and are suffering.
She noted instances of the Islamic Regime spendings citizens’ money to fund terrorist groups, forcing women to marry young and cover up their hair at a certain age and forcing religions onto people. She said she’s hopeful that the country can now gain their freedom back.
“Iranians can take back their country, their freedom, which we didn’t have. We haven’t had our freedom since 1979. Women were oppressed. We cannot go out without covering our hair and you know they track everything,” she said.
She also said the University of Missouri has worked to offer Iranians counseling and wellness centers, which has helped.
Boroujerdi also said until another supreme leader is chosen for Iran, there will be temporary leadership arrangement. A group of clerics are then supposed to get together and decide who the next leader should be.
However, he said it becomes difficult for them to be able to get together as a group due to them being a potential target for attacks. He said there are other issues that pose problems as well and that the short answer is that more information is needed.
The US State Department urged citizens to depart from countries in the Middle East and President Trump has warned that the operation could continue for weeks. Six service members also died in an Iranian attack on US troops in Kuwait on Sunday.
