Potential Iran-Israel ceasefire prompts mixed feelings for some Canadian-Iranians

The Iranian diaspora in Canada have mixed feelings regarding the claimed ceasefire deal between Iran and Israel, says a B.C. social-political activist.

As U.S. President Donald Trump claimed a ceasefire deal was in place between Israel and Iran, some members of the Iranian diaspora in Canada watched on with mixed feelings.

Among them, Canadian-Iranian social-political activist Melody Moheb, who spoke with CTV News on Monday in Mission.

“Whoever I talk to here in the community or for a couple of short talks I have with my family in Iran, there’s a lot of ambiguity and stress in the air,” Moheb said. “Well maybe we knew this was coming. Not for years, but decades. But now it’s here and it’s not easy to deal with.”

Moheb has organized rallies in the Vancouver area for years in a push for improvements to the rights of Iranian women. The fundamentalist regime regularly ranks near the bottom of international assessments of female rights conducted by economic and human rights organizations.

While a temporary end to the fighting would bring a form of relief – for Moheb – a ceasefire also likely means the continuation of what she knows to be an oppressive regime.

She fears western nations will abandon Iran’s people.

“If there’s a ceasefire, there is something else that we’re thinking about,” Moheb said. “Are they leaving us with these monsters? They came in, they bombed us, and they left. They talked about regime change, they didn’t do anything. That’s another scary part. That’s even scarier.”

The continuation of Iran’s authoritarian Islamic regime is Moheb’s long-term fear.

Her short-term fear is the safety of her mother and sister – who still live in Iran – with a factory ten minutes from their home recently bombed, presumably during an Israeli strike.

“Three hundred people died and I don’t know what happens if this gets messy and nasty,” Moheb said of potential casualties to civilians if there is a continuation of fighting. “I just hope that they think about us too.”

For now, Moheb must wait and watch. The fate of her homeland, and its people, seemingly as uncertain as ever.