Following President Trump\u2019s announcement that the U.S. would seek new sanctions, but not immediate military escalation, against Iran, most people in the United States likely breathed a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n
For Iranians and Iranian Americans like myself, that relief was accompanied by a reminder of just how painful existing conditions can be. Sanctions starve our people of food, medicine, and safety while public figures threaten<\/a>us<\/a> with more violence<\/a>. We may no longer be at immediate risk of all-out, open combat, but this is hardly peace.<\/p>\n Every part of the US relationship with Iran feels asymmetrical<\/a>, and looking through coverage of Iran in US media makes that imbalance incredibly obvious. It\u2019s even been memed<\/a>: Every few months I see friends share an image from a 1998 interview<\/a> in which Iran\u2019s then-President Mohammad Khatami refers to Alexis de Tocqueville\u2019s Democracy in America<\/i> – which he states, perhaps fancifully, \u201cI am sure most Americans have read.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Iranians (and the rest of the world) are expected to keep up with American news and history – often more so than many Americans themselves. But perspectives from Iranians and Iranian Americans have been largely absent in mainstream US media, or of questionable<\/a> sourcing when they do appear.<\/p>\n This absence is systemic<\/a>, a recent analysis from Jadaliyya<\/i> explained, and allows war hawks like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton to get away with basing the conventional wisdom on foreign policy on shallow tropes.<\/p>\n Fortunately, this absence has also been felt by plenty of Americans, eager to resist more bloodshed in their names. So I\u2019ve compiled a few of the most illuminating and emotionally resonant pieces I\u2019ve come across from Iranians and Iranian Americans, both in the diaspora and within Iran.<\/p>\n To understand the most recent crisis<\/b><\/p>\n I was skeptical of most op-eds in the aftermath of the US drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani. But I knew this New York Times<\/i> piece<\/a> from Azadeh Moaveni had struck a nerve in my community when it kept popping up in family WhatsApp chats and across my Twitter timeline.<\/p>\n And for good reason – Moaveni explains why the constant beating of war drums feels \u201clike a civilizational inheritance, a legacy that my mother bore before me, her mother before her, and that I will pass down to my children.\u201d<\/p>\n Many people know of the U.S.-backed coup in Iran that installed a brutal monarch in 1953. More are learning about the time the US Navy shot down an Iranian passenger plane in 1988, at the close of Iran\u2019s war with Iraq, in which the US also provided Iraq with support. These memories, Moaveni says, are ever present in Iranian policy and sentiment towards the US government.<\/p>\n For another frame of reference, read the work of anthropologist Narges Bajoghli, who has done years of field research on Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n Her reporting<\/a> as the Trump administration reneged on the Iran deal shows the frustration and betrayal that have been pervasive since the beginning of this round of the crisis. Her research also means her geopolitical analysis<\/a> of Soleimani\u2019s assassination is unparalleled.<\/p>\n To learn about the gravity of sanctions<\/b><\/p>\n Every time the Trump administration announces a new round of sanctions against Iran, I ask myself: What could there possibly be left to sanction?<\/p>\n Sanctions have an enormous impact on ordinary Iranians. There are the daily indignities – the people who get cut off from Venmo<\/a> and Slack<\/a> for non-violations, like traveling to Iran or putting the word \u201cPersian\u201d in a transaction. And then there\u2019s the dangerous – from the restrictions<\/a> on donations after natural disasters to the impact<\/a> on health care and the labor market<\/a>.<\/p>\n To realize how oppressive sanctions can feel when you\u2019re the one living under them, read this piece<\/a> by the pseudonymous Iranian author Pedestrian, whose writing<\/a>portrays<\/a> life in Iran with a nuance and grace I\u2019m not used to seeing in English-language media.<\/p>\n \u201cBy adopting the seemingly neutral language of economics and law, sanctions legitimize dehumanization,\u201d they write. To understand why sanctions are an act of war, read more about the weight of caring for your loved ones under them.<\/p>\n To understand life in wartime <\/b><\/p>\n After Soleimani\u2019s assassination, people across the United States both joked and worried about impending war.<\/p>\n Instead of thinking of the future, my mind went to the past, to the stories I heard all my life from my family about living through sirens and air raids during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. I\u2019ve heard these stories with increasing frequency over the last few years as friends and family talk more openly about a war would mean for people in Iran.<\/p>\n