War in Iran has left west London Iranians united in grief but divided on future
There aren't many supporters of the Islamic Republic among Ealing and Hounslow’s Iranian community but few support regime change from outside
Columns of smoke rise above buildings in Tehran on an Iranian news channel in an Ealing restaurant. It may be almost 6,000 kilometres away but for the owner of the Persian Palace and its diners, it is also their home which is under attack.
Mohammed Hosseini, the owner of the restaurant on the Uxbridge Road, said his family have left Tehran but some have been evacuated to other cities such as Shiraz which is also under threat. “I have been so heartbroken since this began and I was up all night hoping that this ceasefire will continue. My father-in-law was so ill that he needed an ambulance to evacuate to north Tehran,” he says.
But like many Iranians, his pain at the attack on the country has not translated into anger against its clerical regime. “We do not care about the regime, we care about what is happening to the people. We do not want third parties to change the regime, that is the choice of the people,” he says.
Hosseini is confident that the agony of 12 days of war will lead to positive change. “The regime will have to change its attitude. A lot of hardliners have been killed and the regime will need to work with the people if they want to rebuild,” he says.
Around 800 Iranians have been killed and several thousand injured diring Israeli and US attacks according to news reports but the impact on Iran’s nuclear programme remains unclear.
Iranians have lived in the UK for decades with Kensington the original community centre. Kensington High Street still has many cafes and groceries where caviar can be bought but the community has expanded to Ealing, Finchley and beyond. The migration of Iranians has been caused by the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War and ongoing political repression and economic stagnation which has been exacerbated by Iran’s conflict with Israel and the West.
At the Library for Iranian Studies in Acton, staff are preparing to move its collection of 30,000 books in Farsi in preparation for a major redevelopment of its site. The new building will feature an 876 square metre Caspian Cultural Centre and Library of Iranian Studies and 105 student rooms which will finance the development.
The library’s notice board is testament to a community that plays volleyball and football, learns Persian and English and celebrates Nowruz, the celebration of the Spring Equinox which takes place throughout the former Persian Empire and predates Islam.
Nearby, Roya and Amin run a hairdresser which offers a private room for women who wear a hijab. They also have extended family in Iran and have been fearful for their lives but they also welcome the attack on the Islamic regime which they hope will weaken it. “We would love to go back home but there is no freedom. The mullahs have no education, they only study the Quran. Religion should stay in the mosque or the church, it should not be in government,” says Roya.
The pair support the leadership of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah of Iran, who was deposed by the Islamic Revolution after decades of autocratic rule. “At the moment, he is the only option,” says Amin.
Across the road, Farshid runs the Abadan barber shop, named after his hometown close to the border with Iraq, which was devastated during the 1980-88 war. He has been in the UK for 25 years after escaping Abadan and then Iran for Dubai and then London. “My life started with a war and now this. My sister was very close to explosions in Tehran and was told to leave her home. I don’t think this one is going to improve people’s lives either,” he says.
London has been a centre of resistance to the Islamic Republic which has been accused of dispatching agents to eliminate critics. A man from Ealing was among three Iranian nationals who were charged with spying for Iran and plotting to harm journalists based in the UK at Westminster Magistrates Court in May.
Ahmad Vahdat, a journalist who reports on Iranian affairs from London, said the Iranian diaspora was divided but most Iranians in Iran and abroad wanted to see the end of the Islamic regime. “The Iranian community is a mixture of educated Iranians who came to this country to study and were not able to come back because of the revolution and the war with Iraq and a new generation of Iranians who have come to this country as refugees. We have a unique mixture of highly-educated, successful community of doctors, engineers, scientists, nurses and oil and gas specialists and younger Iranians who have come to this country in search of education and prosperity,” he says.
Vahdat predicts that the war will have a transformative effect on Iran even if it does not directly lead to regime change as the government will need to enlist the support of the people to survive. “My prediction is that if we have a ceasefire, post-war Iran will be completely different from what it was ten days ago. The regime will need a process of reconstruction but they have no means. They don’t have the backing of the majority of the country who question the wisdom of spending $200 billion on the so-called nuclear programme when we don’t have enough electricity for public consumption,” he explains.
The Persian Palace restaurant features friezes and statues from the Persian Empire which lasted from 550 to 330 BC until it was conquered by Alexander the Great. It was succeeded by the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian empires before it was invaded by the Arab Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th Century.
Hosseini says that Iranian families travel from all over southern England to visit his restaurant, one of the several Iranian restaurants on the Uxbridge Road. The ceasefire may only be a pause in hostilities but it will allow Iranian family gatherings and festivities ion London, long postponed, to start again.