BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jamshid Vafai left Iran with his family in 1965 and eventually settled in Buffalo, where he spent years working as a teacher in the Buffalo Public Schools. For decades, he says he watched the situation in Iran from a distance, but one moment in recent history changed that.
“I didn’t really pay too much attention until the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’—Mahsa Amini,” Vafai said.
The Mahsa Amini protests captured worldwide attention in 2022 after a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by Iran’s so-called morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. She died while in custody after witnesses claimed she had been severely beaten, sparking nationwide demonstrations…