Iran hostage crisis and its effect on Iranian American Immigrants Essay

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