The phone call never came through.
For thousands of Iranians living in Oklahoma — students, professionals, families who have made our state their home — that silence has become achingly familiar since late December, when a new wave of protests erupted across Iran and the government responded by severing the country’s digital lifelines. What began as demonstrations against economic collapse has grown into one of the most significant uprisings in modern Iranian history — and for Iranians in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Stillwater and Norman, it has meant days, sometimes weeks, without knowing if their loved ones are safe.
“You go to work, you pick up your kids from school, you try to live your life,” one Iranian American in the Oklahoma City metro area told me, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals against family members still in Iran. “But in the back of your mind, you’re wondering if your mother made it home from the market, if your brother was at the wrong place when the protests started. And you have no way to find out.”…