"Diaspora" is a dirty word
(TL:DR – "Diaspora" is a loaded term that dismisses my ability to share the voice of my friends and family in Iran, and dismisses my connection to Iran.)
I think the word "Diaspora" has taken on a loaded meaning, and is being used to dismiss and marginalize the voices of Iranians who are only living abroad because they were fortunate enough to have been able to escape the regime.
Despite being "diaspora", I have Iranian citizenship. I have an Iranian passport and shenas nameh. I do military deferral paperwork whenever I visit Iran.
Despite being "diaspora", I have visited Iran several times, for months at a time. I have cherished memories across many years picnicking at night along the Zayandeh Rud in Isfahan, each time hearing my cousins complain about how it has become even dryer than the year before. I have a favorite pizza joint, a favorite shopping mall, and a favorite route I take home, with shir-moz in hand (or aab-haveej bastani if I'm feeling bougie).
Despite being "diaspora", I play Iranian music on the violin as a hobby, from classics like Jaane Maryam, to modern pieces like Sabok Baal. I listen to old-school Viguen, I dance to pop hits like Sasy, and I rock out to indie artists like Moody Moussavi and B-Band. My partner and I make jokes in Farsi, watch Iranian movies, and fight over who makes better gheymeh (I do).
Despite being "diaspora", my political opinions are the same as my friends and family living under the regime's occupation, who cannot speak for themselves. I go to protests – because they cannot. I share Pahlavi's Iranian Prosperity Project and Alinejad's UN speech at every opportunity – because they cannot. I remind my friends that Iranians are more scared of Sepah, Basij, and foreign mercenary forces stopping them on the street than they are of US and Israeli missiles – because they cannot.
I'm not just "Iranian Diaspora". I'm Iranian. I encourage all my fellow Iranians abroad to avoid the word "diaspora" which, while technically correct, has been used over and over again to dismiss our voices as illegitimate, as though they are unrepresentative of the Iranians in Iran.