Atbin Moayedi

I love football. I'm a Manchester United season ticket holder who has watched Iran and England at three World Cups: Germany 2006, Brazil 2014 and Qatar 2022. This summer I am going on a family holiday to California to visit relatives. Coincidentally, following the group draw in December, two of Iran's games at this year’s World Cup are played in LA, just an hour north of where most of my US relatives live. Los Angeles and Southern California is home to almost a million people of Iranian descent, the largest population of Iranians outside Iran. The Iranian national football team would in theory be playing against New Zealand and Belgium with a fervent home support. Many Iranians will be there to cheer on their country. But I won't be joining them.

Dubai is like the dazzling partner some people enjoy being seen with, but know deep down they would never marry. Style without substance. Attraction without culture. All the confidence but none of the charisma. A place associated with glitz and glamour, not class and intellect. The carefully cultivated influencer-led depiction of Dubai as the best place in the world is falling apart What attracted many Westerners to Dubai was the absence of income tax. In more recent years, as the quality of life in Britain has been declining, clean and safe streets have been pull factors for some Brits. But the Iranian regime's drone attacks on the United Arab Emirates has shattered the illusion of Dubai as a safe haven.

The Islamic Republic in Iran is not only at war with the United States and Israel. For years, the country's government has been waging war on Iranian culture. Music, poetry, storytelling, dogs, dancing, singing, art, dice and card games, romance, tolerance and the honouring of women are central to Persian culture and its ancient history. Yet under the Islamic Republic, these cherished expressions are banned or stigmatised, especially when pursued by women. Their departure from the country they love is one of the most poignant brain drains in history In the dark, dystopian times immediately following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, couples holding hands or a man so much as looking at a woman could lead to arrest, or worse.

Think about how bad things would have to be for ordinary Iranians to plead for Donald Trump to carry out military intervention against their own country (though in reality, against their hostage takers, the Islamic Republic). Iranian women, children, men, flora and fauna are dying at the hands of the Iranian regime. Killing is what they do Iran, the world’s oldest country, has been ruled by a theocratic authoritarian terrorist regime for the past 47 years. Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when the ayatollahs took over, a mafia of clerical families took the Iranian people hostage.