Iranian diaspora marks Nowruz with heavy hearts as war cuts contact with loved ones
PARIS (AP) — When Iran erupted in nationwide protests at the end of 2025, Shayan Ghadimi’s mother returned to the country from Paris to see the uprising for herself.
Her absence — and the struggle to stay in touch through the bloody crackdown that followed and now the Iran war — hang over the family. Like many Iranians outside the country, they will mark the normally festive Persian new year, known as Nowruz, with heavy hearts — or not at all.
Ghadimi’s 70-year-old mother had watched the early protests on TV. “We could see the market closed, the people in the street. She said, ‘I want to be there,’” Ghadimi, 41, said as she prepared to serve lunches in the spice-scented restaurant she runs in Paris.
“Now, she is all alone at home, with no way to stay in contact, watching the sky. I cannot imagine the state she is in,” Ghadimi said.
An Iranian cultural center in Paris that last year organized music events for Nowruz says it’s in mourning. In the United States, some Iranian American communities also canceled or scaled back festivities.
Nowruz, or “new day” in Farsi, coincides with the spring equinox and is celebrated from Afghanistan to Turkey. Iranians of diverse faiths mark Nowruz — which is rooted in Zoroastrian tradition dating back millennia — despite occasional efforts by hard-liners to discourage it.
Celebrating together for comfort
Shakiba Edighoffer, out grocery shopping for Nowruz, said she and Iranian friends are on a “kind of emotional roller coaster” as the war rages. Israel and the United States are attacking Iran’s leaders and military while the Islamic Republic fires missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states.
“You hear news about this or that leader of the Islamic Republic being eliminated … about executions or bombings,” the makeup artist said.
With communications largely severed, trying to find out how family and friends are faring under bombardments is a stressful ordeal.
“I had a friend who managed to connect very briefly on Instagram a few days ago, but I think it’s been about 20 days now since the war started, and that was really the only time I was able to speak with him a little,” Edighoffer said.
Celebrating Nowruz with family and friends “helps us cope, at least a little, with the psychological pressure,” she said. “All these oppressors want is for us to be sad, to forget our millennia-old Persian and Iranian traditions. We must not give them that victory.”
Tears of anguish and of joy
Some of the diners who come to Ghadimi’s restaurant for flame-grilled kebabs and spiced rice hope the war will bring a new dawn. Other can’t see past the deaths and destruction wrought by Israeli and U.S. strikes.
“I have people in tears. I have people who cry for joy. They say, ‘Did you see? They are coming. We are going to be saved.’ Others say, ‘Our country is being destroyed,’” she said.
Since her mother returned to Iran in January, they’ve only managed to speak to each other twice.
“Quite honestly, I don’t try anymore. Because it stresses me out, if I try calling and can’t get hold of her,” she said. “My sister calls 100 times a day and can’t reach her.”
Her mother had a return ticket and had promised to be back for Nowruz.
But when they last spoke, about a week ago, her mother said those plans had changed. Having lived through the 1979 Islamic Revolution, she wants to see Iran’s next chapter.
“I am staying here until the end,” her mother told her.
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Associated Press journalist John Leicester contributed.