Name: Iranians in Utah fear for loved ones back home amid regime crackdown
Uploaded: 2026-01-14T02:58:20.303Z
Duration: 2 min 39 s
Description: Iranians in Utah fear for loved ones back home during regime crackdown

Iranians in Utah fear for loved ones back home during regime crackdown

Utah

Members of the Iranian community in Utah are voicing deep concern for their families and friends in Iran amid reports of a violent crackdown by the regime. Many, like Melina Nazari, recall personal experiences of repression and are now unable to contact loved ones due to internet and communication blackouts in Iran.

Community members gather at places like Sumac Cafe in Cottonwood Heights to support each other and raise awareness. While some are able to speak out, others remain silent out of fear for the safety of relatives still in Iran, highlighting the ongoing risks faced by those connected to the country.

Iranians in Utah fear for loved ones back home amid regime crackdown

This is Tehran, where the regime has reportedly killed thousands of its own citizens. This is Cottonwood Heights, 6,600 miles away, but for Salt Lake City's Iranian community, it's much closer. We have to be voice for those 82 million people who have no voice. This is a sumac cafe. It's a place to hear the voices of Iran. Melina Nazari and her family run Sumac, the cafe's name for the reddish-purple spice that grows plentifully not just in Iran, but here in Utah. Same flower. Wow. Isn't that crazy? That's amazing. So much similarity, but we don't have our freedom back home. Here we do, and I wish they could all have it. As a child, Nazari escaped Iran as a refugee and is now a U.S. citizen, but she remembers being arrested. She was 11 years old. This lady came and grabbed me, and they were saying, where's your hijab? Why you not wearing your hijab? You're going to pay for this. I'm like, why? What is going on? So they took me to this very cold, ugly room. Younger people like me, they've been through a lot back home. They've been dead. They've been shot. They've been kicked. They've been slammed. In the same room as I was in. Census estimates there are 500 to 700 people in the Salt Lake City area who were either born in Iran or identify as Iranian or Persian. Molina doesn't remember an Iran without an Islamic regime. Nasreen Mohammedan. Like many, she came here to get an education. She went to the University of Utah for engineering in 1975. She went back, and a week later, the hostage crisis began. She managed to escape back. There have been uprisings since, but she says this one is different. The first time, it was political. The second time, it was freedom. The third time, it's economy. You put all the three legs together, and they have nothing to mend that. Nasreen said she can speak up, but others we talked to said they could not for fear of reprisals on their family back home. It doesn't help that with internet and communication being cut to the outside world, people like Molina have no idea how their family is doing back home. I hope my grandma, my grandpa, my dad are okay back home. My friends, my best friends, I haven't heard from them. From Cottonwood Heights, Chris Reed, FOX 13 News, Utah.

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