At a university town hall in Ann Arbor, a young man whose family has bled under the Islamic Republic asked a Senate candidate to say plainly what politics often obscures. The exchange between Iman Dashti and Abdul El-Sayed illuminates a tension as old as democratic solidarity itself: how does one stand with a suffering people without becoming an instrument of the very imperial machinery that has so often made their suffering worse? El-Sayed's answer — that change in Iran belongs to Iranians, not to American military ambition — satisfied the principle but left the personal wound unaddressed.
Michigan student presses El-Sayed on Iran stance at contentious town hall
Student's cousin was hunted by IRGC for improper hijab; uncle sentenced to death and received 50 lashes under Iranian government.