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But the local diaspora is split by class, ethnicity, religion, politics and even what they call themselves. About half of Iranian Americans backed Trump<\/a> in the 2024 election. Some still support the family of the shah, the U.S.-backed leader deposed during the 1979 revolution that brought the current ruling clergy to power. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, L.A.\u2019s tens of thousands of Persian Jews are more likely to have cousins hiding from bombs in Tel Aviv than Tehran. About the only thing everybody agrees on is that Raffi\u2019s Place<\/a> is amazing.<\/p>\n I asked Iranian American novelist and \u201cTehrangeles\u201d author Porochista Khakpour her thoughts about the war right now. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n This is the first time in my life that I actually started dodging a lot of reporters who contacted me. I was so frustrated \u2014 not with the media but mostly with the Iranians who I knew were going to take up a lot of space in these discussions.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve been pro-bombing Iran for several decades. I can\u2019t imagine being so morally decrepit that you\u2019re willing to have your loved ones die for a fantasy of regime change.<\/p>\n We have these really horrific divides. Part of it is that Iran\u2019s a huge country. It\u2019s like the U.S. Another big issue that reporters have really missed is that Iran is made up of many ethnic minorities. These divides exist in Iran, and they play out in really strange ways here.<\/p>\n It\u2019s very uncomfortable. We\u2019re in this position where it looks like we\u2019re fighting ourselves nonstop. It\u2019s like walking into a dysfunctional family fight. We\u2019re at a high point of dysfunction, because so much after \u201cWomen, Life, Freedom\u201d<\/a> was unresolved.<\/p>\n Do you feel like other progressive friends don\u2019t really understand that?<\/p>\n People have started to get uncomfortable supporting [Iranians] because they don\u2019t know who the \u201cgood guys\u201d are. And you have a general phobia of Iran that\u2019s been ingrained in Americans since the [1979] hostage crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n A lot of Iranians\u2019 view of the U.S. [bombing] depends on exactly when they came to this country and what their circumstances were. Lots of people with different traumas are all clashing. It really tests your patience sometimes.<\/p>\n What would you tell Angelenos who want to understand the diaspora better?<\/p>\n Try to talk to people who are really connected to ordinary people. These 1% Iranians that I wrote about in my book, they don\u2019t represent the diaspora, and they certainly don\u2019t represent Iran.<\/p>\n The vast majority of us do believe in the same things. We don\u2019t want Iran bombed. We don\u2019t want the regime to be there. We might not know how to get rid of it. But it\u2019s all the other stuff that\u2019s divided us to such a point that we can barely trust each other.<\/p>\n Where\u2019s your Tehrangeles?<\/p>\n The one I wrote about is Westwood, Brentwood, Beverly Hills. But I feel Tehrangeles shouldn\u2019t be seen like that. If I could redraw and reimagine Tehrangeles, it shouldn\u2019t be for the 1%, it should be for all of us.<\/p>\n Read more: <\/b>L.A.\u2019s Iranian community has \u2018mixed and complicated<\/a>\u2019 feelings about U.S. attack<\/p>\n Today\u2019s top stories U.S. Marines inside the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles<\/p>\n (Genaro Molina\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Federal troops in L.A. aren\u2019t all thrilled<\/p>\n Wall Street\u2019s big Eaton fire bet<\/p>\n Israel and Iran ceasefire<\/p>\n Immigration raids<\/p>\n What else is going onCommentary and opinionsThis morning\u2019s must readsOther must reads<\/p>\n For your downtime \u201cElio\u201d brought in just $21 million in its opening weekend, the lowest domestic debut for a Pixar movie.<\/p>\n (Pixar\/PIXAR)<\/p>\n Going out<\/p>\n Staying inAnd finally … your photo of the day Riders make their way down Alondra Boulevard in Compton during the Human Rights Unity Ride on June 22, 2025.<\/p>\n (Carlin Stiehl \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n After the weeks-long Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and protests, a peaceful show of unity was led by people on horseback riding from Paramount to Compton in support of immigrants. L.A. Times photographer Carlin Stiehl captured the ride<\/a>. <\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even before President Trump thrust the U.S. into Israel\u2019s campaign to destroy Iran\u2019s nuclear enrichment program over the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,11791,7823,4140,4238,11789,99,6276,2961,224,2444,5337,11395,7825,5996,11792,11790,3549,290,6620,7827],"class_list":{"0":"post-10857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-civic-revolt","11":"tag-covid","12":"tag-covid-19","13":"tag-days","14":"tag-essential-california","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-l-a","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-may","22":"tag-pandemic","23":"tag-part","24":"tag-president-biden","25":"tag-red-county","26":"tag-san-diego","27":"tag-state","28":"tag-time","29":"tag-years"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114738659489939630","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/a> <\/p>\n
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Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n