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With the bombing of Iran this last weekend, many are asking what’s next? How bad will this get?
One San Antonian knows the drill, having been born and raised there. Ramin Samandari was perched right at the precipice with a front-row seat to history, during a time in transition there.
“I grew up in Iran until I was 17 and a half. In 1979 my parents sent me, over here,” Samandari said.
His parents wanted him to go to medical school, but the expense was just too much.
No one knew where Iran was headed in 1979, but Samandari said it was a frightening process.
One by one the Iranian universities there were closing, which suggested a shutdown of the cultural institutions, and an elevation of religion meant a departure from personal freedoms.
Samandari’s parents saw the possibility of safety and stability here in the states, so they moved him to Texas.
“And then the hostage crisis happened shortly after that, in 1980,” he said. “And so being someone from Iran, especially in a small West Texas town, most people had never even heard of Iran.”
After a few years he found his way to San Antonio and photography, opening his Magical Realism Studios.
He’s watching what’s happening in Iran very closely, and of course, he is hoping for the best.
His family got out just in the nick of time. To them, last Saturday’s bombing news wasn’t a shock.
“This morning, 6:00 in the morning, my sister called me from Canada. She lives in Canada, takes care of my mother, who's there,” Samandari said.
“We were expecting this to happen. I mean, you don't move this much military armament and then turn around and just come back without firing a shot?” he said.
He’s referencing the large-scale moving aircraft carriers and the weapons they wield.
Samandari has his fingers crossed, hoping that the war will be short, and without massive convoys of troops sent to fight.
“There doesn't seem to be any indication that there's going to be any boots on the ground, and you can't really, really change the regime by air power alone.”
Like many, Samandari wasn’t looking forward to this war starting. But now that it’s here, he’s hoping Iranians will find their way to a better form of government.
