Iranians abroad hope for regime change but fear it grows stronger

Record ID: 2373222

  • Title: Iranians abroad hope for regime change but fear it grows stronger
  • Date: 2nd April 2026
  • Summary: BOULDER, COLORADO, UNITED STATES (MARCH 28, 2026) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SHIDEH DASHTI, IRANIAN NATIONAL, PROFESSOR OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BOULDER, COLORADO, AND HER SPOUSE, SHAWHIIN ROUDBARI, IRANIAN NATIONAL AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BOULDER, COLORADO, PREPARING PERSIAN TEA AND
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Colorado Iran Trump USA War
  • Location: VARIOUS, COLORADO, UNITED STATES
  • City: VARIOUS, COLORADO, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,North America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001903031032026RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:One month after U.S. Israeli strikes on Iran began, Shideh Dashti and her husband Shawhiin Roudbari prepare Persian tea and pastries in the morning light of their home in Boulder. Dashti is an Iranian national and professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Roudbari, also Iranian, works as an associate professor in environmental design at the same university. 
    Dashti moved from Iran to finish high school and then went on to college in the US. She met her husband in New York State and they moved to Boulder, CO in 2010. Roudbari was born in LA but moved with his family to Tehran soon after. When he was 10 years old he returned to the US for his last year of high school. Neither Dashti nor Roudbari has been back to Iran since 2019.
    The views expressed by Dashti and Roudbari are their personal opinions and do not represent the University of Colorado Boulder.
    “It’s such a mixed bag of emotions,” Dashti says. “I can’t lie and say in the first moment when we heard they have attacked, there was an ounce of hope and joy that finally, these guys are going to pay for what they did. I understand how complex war is, and I’ve never in my life advocated for any kind of military action. I thought, you know, the best way, and still think the best is through strengthening the civil society.”
    She continues: “I know it’s strange, but I was relieved to see at least some sort of intervention. Unfortunately, it’s by people that I don’t necessarily trust because of their track record.” Dashti recalls a phone call with her cousin in Iran right before the strikes. “And I kept talking about peaceful ways of strengthening the people. And she was like, what are you talking about? Do you even know what we’re going through? I go every week to the funeral of a 12-year-old. And you’re sitting there in your... safe place in Boulder, Colorado.”
    Communication remains difficult. “Instead of protecting the people, they shut down the internet again. So we cannot reach out. We don’t know how anybody is doing. Once in a while, they’re able to call with like a phone card using landlines. So I know my dad is okay.”
    When her father calls, he comforts her. “Whenever I talk to my dad, when he’s able to call, he’s the one calming me down. And he says, they feel this was the right thing, and they are more hopeful than they have ever been. They felt more risk with the Islamic Republic being in full power than now two strongest armies in the world attacking Iran. They feel more protected than they ever did before.” Dashti’s greatest anxiety is the possibility that the regime survives and grows stronger.
    In a park elsewhere in Colorado, Touraj, an Iranian national who asked that neither his last name nor his exact location be disclosed, sits reading a book he wrote for his grandchildren. He fled Iran with his wife and daughter in the mid-eighties after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. “What I expected, I wanted, they just go after the Revolutionary Guard, the CG people, and their units, and the leadership, especially because the CG people are the people that, you know, they are the one who’s shooting people in the street. Do you know what I’m saying? So we were happy about that. Now, of course, now it’s getting a little bit too long.” Touraj says. He urges the U.S. to avoid striking civilian infrastructure.
    “We’re asking the United States not to attack the energy, for example, sources and refinery and this kind of stuff, or the power. This kind of a stuff, when there is no electricity or anything, for example. That’s going to affect on
    everybody, not just on the regime."
    Touraj warns against an inconclusive end to the conflict. “So you cannot start this and then end it without any result, any good result, the result that if they stay in power, they’re gonna be worse than before.” Touraj has not been able to return to Iran.
    One month after the war began, these Iranian voices in Colorado reveal profoundly mixed emotions — moments of hope for regime change intertwined with grief, fear that the regime could emerge stronger, and deep uncertainty about the future for their families and homeland.
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