As an Iranian Australian I feel helpless watching the war unfold and pray for peace – but prayer must be coupled with action | Dellaram Vreeland

My family fled Iran in 1979 as members of a religious minority. Now we watch from the safety of Australia as our community is persecuted again Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast As a second-generation Iranian migrant, I’ve been suffocated by helplessness over the past two months as my spiritual brothers and sisters in Iran fight for a sense of freedom in their home country. Now, as war hits the region, millions of Iranians living around the world watch with trepidation, praying for peace in the face of yet another harrowing conflict. My family fled just before the Iranian revolution in 1979. We are Baháʼís – members of the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran. Bahá’ís have been persecuted since the faith’s inception in the mid-19th century and, in times of unrest, things get worse. We can only imagine what is in store. Before this war, authorities in Iran had already started targeting the Baháʼí community again and using them as scapegoats, blaming them for the protest movement that has swept Iran since December. As Baháʼís, we know this happens every time Iran is in a period