Joy of UK’s Iranian diaspora turning to fear as conflict rocks homeland

In an area of London known as Little Tehran, the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prompted spontaneous street parties, dancing and fireworks. Shoppers still smile as some stores hand out sweet pastries, traditional in Persian culture when there’s cause for celebration.

But as the bombardment of their homeland enters its sixth day, the joy is beginning to fade.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed, major cities are being pummelled and there is growing concern for uncles, aunts and cousins who cannot be reached in Iran.

“On Saturday night, people were happy, it was amazing,” said Mostafa Zaryabi, 44, who works in an Iranian bakery in the Little Tehran area in Finchley, north London, explaining that with the death of Khamenei, who he called “a dictator,” he was hopeful there could now be freedom in Iran.

At a gathering of about 200 mostly Iranian British citizens in central London on Wednesday, 38-year-old human rights activist Bita, who did not want to share her surname, spoke of the “happy mood” of Iranians in Britain.

“There’s a sense of justice and I think, above all, there’s a sense of hopefulness,” she said.

Another activist, Haleh Blake, 39, said she felt much calmer in a world without Khamenei and while she did feel fear about the route to change, she was optimistic about the future.

“We can actually dream about what Iran will be next,” she said.

But Rajad Ali Shahabi, 69, is worried about the destruction of the country. He owns the bakery where the diaspora come to buy traditional handmade flatbreads sprinkled with sesame seeds, and delicacies like green raisins, saffron ginger and sour cherry snacks.

“It’s day and night, they don’t stop,” Shahabi said of the bombing, which he finds stressful to follow on the news.

Reflecting on the events of recent days, 52-year-old I.T. engineer Kamran Naderi said he felt “happy and sad” at the same time.

“Happy to see the government will hopefully disappear, but sad to see some innocent people as collateral damage could be killed.”

IRAN’S FORMER LION AND SUN FLAG FLIES IN LITTLE TEHRAN

Naderi is one of 114,000 Iranian-born people living in Britain, according to the 2021/22 census. Between 2015 and 2024, tens of thousands of Iranians applied for asylum in the UK, more than any other nationality, according to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.

Like dozens of premises in the area, Shahabi’s bakery displays the Lion and Sun flag, the symbol of Iran before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It is often used to show support for the opposition figure Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah.

Shahabi, who would like to see Pahlavi return to lead a secular democratic Iran, said while there were apprehensions about the conflict, the majority of his customers have been smiling since Saturday.

“You can see joy on their faces,” he said. “This is the beginning of the end.”