The Fox News Rundown After Decades Of Tyranny, Iranians Dream Of Freedom
Mar 7, 2026
Nazee Moinian, associate fellow at the Middle East Institute and scholar of Iranian studies, shares her family's flight from Iran and deep knowledge of Iranian history. She recounts reactions to recent strikes and Khamenei’s death. Conversations cover Iran before the revolution, waves of domestic protest, the decision to strike, and why removing the regime matters internationally.
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Family Flight From Revolutionary Tehran
- Nazee Moinian fled Iran with her family in 1980 after hearing revolutionary chants and sensing danger.
- Her father obtained hastily assembled passports and they landed at JFK on December 13, starting a life in the U.S. marked by grief and hope.
Cosmopolitan Neighbors Turned Revolutionary Overnight
- Nazee recalls neighborhood Europeans who before the revolution dressed in Chanel and vacationed in Europe but then joined Islamist chants by candlelight.
- That shift convinced her father it was time to leave, illustrating rapid social transformation in cities like Tehran.
Pre-Revolution Iran Was Rapidly Modernizing
- Iran was a modernizing, Westernizing state under the Shah with expanded education, women's rights, and infrastructure investment.
- The Shah used oil revenues to send students abroad and build universities, creating a cosmopolitan society that alarmed clerical authorities in Qom.
