Locals react to Iran election

The recent election in Iran has been felt around the world including La Cañada. Nahid Ansari left Iran when she was a teenager with her parents and siblings and now lives in La Cañada with her husband and family.

“I am watching it with a lot of interest,” Ansari said.

On June 12 presidential elections were held across Iran, although many polls showed strong support for challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi he lost his bid for the office to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since then Iranians supporting both men have taken to the streets in protest and the presidency is in dispute.

Ansari said she and her family are watching reports out of Iran and are concerned about the elections outcome.

“[According to the polls] we thought Mousavi could have won,” she said. “In any election anywhere you would expect the candidate to at least carry his home town or province but he didn’t.”

The reported result of the election was that Ahmadinejad won by a large margin, almost two-thirds of the vote, which seems curious to many, including Ansari and her family.

“It is pretty sad. A lot of people had a hope for this election,” Ansari said.

She added that her family are American citizens and no longer have any relatives in Iran but are still concerned about the violence in the country and the land they immigrated from. She is not certain what she sees in the media is really painting a true picture.

“My brother traveled back to Iran about five years ago,” she said. “According to what we had seen on TV and in reports Iran was not that bad.”

But the stories her brother brought back was of poverty and hardship. She would like to travel to Iran one day with her husband and family to show them where she was born.

“As an American citizen it would be difficult. Iran doesn’t recognize American citizenship,” she said.

Ansari would have to renew her Iranian passport to visit and although she knows many, including her brother, who have done this she does not feel comfortable with the procedure. She had hoped that if there were a change in Iran’s leadership, the United States would have a better relationship.

“That is what we were all hoping for,” she said. “With freedom of the press and more of a focus on domestic issues instead of trying to distract by using foreign enemies as [a focus].”

She, her family and friends from Iran will continue to watch the reports and hope for the best.

“The people of Iran wanted to make a change not to get arrested for voicing their opinion,” she said. “They want what we all want to live in peace and live a happy life.”