LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Las Vegas woman who has called Southern Nevada home for nearly three decades says the ongoing government crackdown in Iran feels deeply personal, even from thousands of miles away.
When a friend asked Roya Brodheim if she knew anyone in Iran, her answer stopped the conversation cold: "Yeah, 90 million."
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More than 90 million people live in Iran, and Brodheim says she is mourning the loss of thousands of her people during a brutal government crackdown in recent weeks that has left at least 2,400 demonstrators dead, many of them young. Internet access remains cut off across the country.
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Brodheim, who is originally from Iran but has lived in Southern Nevada since 1997, joined hundreds of people from the local Iranian community who gathered Saturday on the Las Vegas Strip to protest what has been happening in their homeland.
"The basic freedom, that's all they want. They want their freedom, and it's so basic," Brodheim said.
The crackdown has created additional anguish for Iranian families living in Southern Nevada who cannot communicate with loved ones back home.
"There are a lot of people that they have still their family over there. The first worry is we don't know how they are and especially now that there is no communication," Brodheim said. "Everybody's asking that, oh, can you please call my mom? Can you please—and this is devastating."
For Brodheim, the casualty numbers aren't abstract statistics—they're personal.
"It could be my son. It could have been my daughter. It could be anybody that you know—your neighbor, your cousin, anyone—but above all it's all these young people that they have their future in front of them," she said. "But now probably it's about time to change that, and I hope it's going to change."
As Southern Nevada's Iranian community continues to grow, many residents say this is about more than politics—it's about family, freedom, and a future they're still fighting for.
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