Reza Esmaeel says he’s living the dream in the U.S.
Born and raised in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, the 33-year-old UF alumnus moved to the United States in 2019 to complete his doctorate. He received permanent residency last year and is now pursuing U.S. citizenship.
While in Iran, Esmaeel’s life lacked freedom, he said.
“They want to micromanage every little aspect of your life,” he said. “The way you dress, the way you eat, the way you drink, the way you work, what you do and what you shouldn’t do.”
His reflections come as tensions between Iran, Israel and the U.S. have escalated following coordinated strikes on Iranian targets.
On Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iranian leadership and military sites, prompting reactions across the Middle East and intensifying divisions between the Iranian public and its government.
The attacks killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, senior military officials and at least 555 people across Iran.
An estimated 416 Iranians — including 96 international students at UF — live in Gainesville. Though the war has caused difficulties in daily life, it's also filled some with a sense of pride.
Hadi Ghasemi, a 36‑year-old Iranian UF horticulture sciences doctoral student, said the regime’s internet blackout has made it hard to stay in touch with family during the war, leaving him lying awake at night hoping for contact.
He said outsiders often misunderstand Iran and its culture because they lack local perspective.
Despite the conflict, he remains hopeful.
“I believe whatever is happening right now, there will be a new future for this country,” Ghasemi said.
Ghasemi is just one of many Iranians critical of the government. A 2024 survey by a Tilburg University researcher found 41.3% of Iranian respondents said regime change is necessary for progress in Iran, while 11.8% said they support the Islamic Republic.
The strikes have also drawn strong reactions from Israeli and Jewish communities abroad.
Rabbi Aaron Notik, from the Chabad UF Jewish Student Center, said Israel has faced threats from Iran for years.
Since the 1980s, Iran has supported armed groups that oppose Israeli interests, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. He said many Israelis he’s spoken with expressed hope the war would end tensions between Iran and Israel.
“When someone says they’re going to destroy you, time and again, and then they actually act on it, then you really have to take that seriously,” he said.
His concerns mirror those of U.S. officials, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who say Iran poses a threat to national security.
Explanations for the strikes come amid skepticism from the American public.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this week found 27% of Americans approve of the strikes, while 43% opposed them.
Valeria Alatorre, a 21-year-old UF political science and criminology junior, said the U.S. is “always getting in other countries’ business.” She doesn’t believe the Trump administration has sufficient proof of Iran’s nuclear development, she said.
On Tuesday, Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote on X the agency has found no evidence Iran is building a nuclear bomb, though its refusal to grant full inspector access remains a serious concern.
“I really don’t understand what the end goal for the United States is,” Alatorre said, referencing the country’s past involvement in the Middle East. “We end up hurting so many families and communities.”
Benjamin B. Smith, a professor and chair of the political science department at UF, explained political factors contributing to the war.
According to Smith, the Islamic Republic is overwhelmingly Shiite Muslim and has structured its political system around religious authority. This has shaped both its domestic and foreign policy, as the regime positions itself as a defender of Shiite communities abroad.
“One of the reasons you haven’t seen a lot of statements of outrage from other Muslim countries about the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran is that they don’t like the Islamic Republic either,” he said.
Smith is the author of a book about the Iranian economy, and he said decades of corruption have concentrated wealth among a small Iranian elite.
Ordinary Iranians, meanwhile, struggle under sanctions and decades of financial mismanagement. He added that many of the country’s modern political and economic challenges stem from the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which replaced the Imperial State of Iran with the Islamic Republic.
“The faction that emerged victorious from it did so because they were willing to be really, really brutal, and they demonstrated over and over again that they're still willing to be pretty heavy-handed with their own people,” Smith said.
Contact Julianna Bendeck at jbendeck@alligator.org.
Julianna is a first-year journalism student and The Alligator's Spring 2026 race and equity reporter. She was previously an editor for Eagle Media, Florida Gulf Coast University's student newspaper. In her free time, she enjoys playing video games and reading. She is hoping to attend law school in the future.
