ST. LOUIS —
His wife and four children are thousands of miles away, caught in the middle of the maelstrom engulfing Iran.
Yet Dr. Nader Moazami is glad that his former countrymen are rising up and trying to seize their destiny.
"Even though my family is stuck there and things can spin out of control, I'm happy this is happening," said the Barnes-Jewish Hospital cardiothoracic surgeon, whose family was on vacation in Iran during the June 12 presidential election.
Moazami is one of many Iranians in the St. Louis area who are glued to televisions, radios, newspapers and the Internet, seeking news about their homeland in the wake of a government crackdown on election protesters.
Many still have parents, siblings, cousins and friends there.
Most say the protests reveal a dissatisfaction that runs far deeper than the anger about what protesters say was a rigged election.
"These events have just provided an outlet," Moazami said.
"If you are actually ruling by machine guns and a dictatorship, why even put on elections?" he asked, adding that the Iranian government had no shame and no compulsions about kicking out journalists, shutting down the Internet and even killing people.
"It's tragic, but if anything is going to change in Iran, this (the uprising) has to happen," he said. "The government is ruthless and shameless. The question is how strong the people's resolve is."
Dr. Bahar Bastani, a professor of internal medicine at St. Louis University, said president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's four-year term as president was a disaster for Iranians, which is what caused progressive groups to come out in force.
"They participated in the hope that they can bring in somebody who is more moderate and who believes in human rights. Everybody participated with the hope of change," he said.
But the current developments worry Bastani, who believes Iran can't afford to have another revolution and start from scratch again.
"We need a smooth transition and more human rights. Then in time, people will demand small changes and become more democratic," he said.
His guess is that the majority of the protesters want a reform of the current regime, mainly because there is no viable alternative to it.
"The monarchy and the mujahedeen have minimal support. So the healthy thing is a gradual move towards more freedom. Revolution would bring chaos and destruction," he said.
Bastani is organizing a local rally at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Old Courthouse, Fourth and Market streets, to show support for the demonstrators in Iran.
Washington University academic Fatemeh Keshavarz has been using her blog and e-mail newsletter to keep people updated on the developments in Iran.
Her blog, she said, has shown a noticeable increase in traffic since the uprising.
Keshavarz, chairwoman of the university's Department of Asian and Near-Eastern Languages and Literature, said people from Iran were telling her that police were now out in force, stifling any attempt at peaceful rallies, at times outnumbering protesters 4 to 1.
She expressed her disbelief at the decision of the nation's Guardian Council to uphold the election results.
"There have been serious irregularities in at least 50 voting districts. I don't know what they (the Guardian Council) are talking about."
She believes the government eventually will realize that the protesters are not going to go away.
"I think the government will make concessions. I think in the weeks to come, we should expect some structural change, peacefully, through negotiations. It's just impossible to go on like this.
"How soon it happens depends on how pressure is put in the right way from outside. Not militarily, because that would have a negative effect on the people, but social, cultural and political pressure," she said.
Not everybody shares her optimism. Hamish Bahrami, who runs a Persian restaurant on South Grand Boulevard, lost a brother in the first revolution and doesn't have much faith in the Iranian government to improve the lot of its people.
Bahrami, who came to the United States in 1976, said that while there wasn't much freedom when she used to live in Iran, things are worse now.
"They kill more people. Friends who go there tell me how hard it is. People want change, especially women. There is no equality for women, even though it's the 21st century," she said.
She's snapping up any bit of information she can glean about developments in her homeland.
"I've been an American longer than I've been Iranian. I love America, and I'm very involved in everything in this country. But half my heart is still there. It's my first love."