Iranian immigrants in central Ohio are trying to contact family and create community as conflict escalates between Israel and Iran.
Farnaz Maleky, an Iranian immigrant who lives in Columbus and is a professor at Ohio State University, has not been able to contact her family that lives in Tehran since Tuesday. She said it feels like a bad dream.
Maleky said she has also tried to reach out to local Iranian community groups for support, but hasn鈥檛 had much luck.
鈥淔rom the first day, from the first minute, I was very much active on Facebook, on LinkedIn, sending emails to people, even contacting my Iranian community in Ohio, and said, 'do you want to have any gathering, any campaign, anything?'鈥� She continued, 鈥淓ven a student association at OSU, on Facebook, I emailed them and messaged them, 'do you wanna have anything?'鈥�
鈥淐an you believe that nobody even replied,鈥� Maleky said.
Maleky also discussed the last time she spoke to her family in Tehran. She said they didn鈥檛 want to evacuate.
鈥淭hey didn't want to leave Tehran. They said, 'this is our country. This is our city. We are not going to evacuate Tehran.' To be honest with you, I myself, if I can be in Tehran, I would be there immediately. I was searching for the flight. There is no flight available,鈥� Maleky explained. 鈥淭he airports are actually closed, flights are all canceled. I really want to be there because I want to be with my people.鈥�
Maleky said she doesn't want the direct involvement of the United States. President Trump said he will decide over the next two weeks if the U.S. will get directly involved.
"As an Iranian-American, I am outraged and heartbroken that while I live and work in one country, my tax dollars are used to carry out strikes against the people of my other country and homeland," Maleky said.
Maleky wants that "people around the world including in the U.S. know Israel's real objective behind this attack."
Maleky ultimately hopes that there is peace and former negotiations with Iran about nuclear capabilities can be restarted.
She also hopes that the central Ohio Iranian community is able to organize to urge the U.S. not to enter the conflict.
