Iran hostage crisis and its effect on Iranian American Immigrants - Essay Example

Assignment By Due On November 4, 1979, a group of Islamist and militants took over the American Embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution. They held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. America was thought of as an evil empire by the Iranians. From 1953 to 1979, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was considered as a ‘puppet’ of America. He was thrown as a result of a coup d’état. The Iranian Revolution clearly despised America and burnt them in effigy. The Americans were held hostage at the embassy so that the objections against America could be heard all over the world.

The takeover was planned by a student named Ebrahim Asgharzadeh. He invited people who shared his views to join his plan. On the morning of November 4, 1979, around 300-500 students surrounded the American embassy and took it over very shortly. The students demanded that Shah Reza must be returned to Iran, trialed and executed. Besides that, they also demanded an apology from the US for meddling unnecessarily in the internal affairs of Iran and the release of Iran’s frozen assets in the US.The takeover was intended to be only for a short while but as its popularity grew in the country and it also won Khomeini’s support, it was prolonged.

There were a few rescue attempts but they failed. A number of delegations were sent to request the release of the hostages but the students insisted that their demands must be met first. The takeover resulted in transfer of 50 tones of gold from America to Iran. The hostages were released as soon as the US President, Jimmy Carter stepped down and Ronald Reagan was elected as the new President. This takeover lasted for an extraordinary length of time and resulted in strained US-Iran relations.

The new situation proved very dire for Iranian Immigrants in the US.Iranians in America had excelled in business, academics and sciences. But after the revolution, the relations between both countries were strained. Iranians were considered as terrorists. They were treated as second class citizens. Their rights were not catered by the Government as compared to U.S citizens. The Iranian immigrants were ignored in every field of life. Americans showed distrust and hatred for them. Iranian immigrants were subjected to discrimination and prejudice in the U.S. instead of reactive solidarity; however some religious minorities from Iran opted to dissociate themselves from their nationality.

Muslim immigrants were not provided with this option because they were largely secular and nationalistic.Even the commercial relations between both the countries were restricted by America. Iran was labeled as an outlaw nation and was isolated from the international world. America has a bleak history when it comes to racism. Iranian immigrants can be considered as the worst victims of racism in history. It is because the takeover was very a very satisfying event for them but it had given birth to a general hatred towards them in the hearts of the Americans.

The kind of hatred that sits in the roots and is generated unanimously in the hearts of the general public does not die easily. This feeling is mutual and the Iranian immigrants rarely repent from showing it. Now Iran feels that American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq are parts of a subversive plot to encircle and surround Iran. In these circumstances, the political decisions from both the countries are very crucial and they both need to take very careful steps to attain and maintain peace and friendship as any bigger clash between the two countries can lead to a global disaster.

References1. “Iran-U.S. Hostage Crisis.” historyguy.com. The History Guy. N.d. Web. 08 Jul. 2011.