You’ve mentioned you’ve been back to Iran. Do you miss Iran at all?
BANIHASHEM: No. I don’t feel I have any affinity or any connection to it except the fact that my father is there, except the fact that I have a common language with the people. Being Iranian is part of my heritage and background it is a heritage I am proud of.

That language is Farsi?
BANIHASHEM: Farsi, yes.

Do you expect that you would be discriminated against here? Being an Iranian. Looking like someone who is from the Middle East do you expect you’d be discriminated against?
BANIHASHEM: Do you think I look like somebody from the Middle East?

Yes.
BANIHASHEM: Why would that be?

Because of your look, the color of your skin.
BANIHASHEM: I could be a Sicilian.

Yes.
BANIHASHEM: Or Spanish.

Yes. But my pick would be Middle Eastern.
BANIHASHEM: Okay. I take your word for that then.

How do expect your life to change is the U.S. if we go to war with Iran?
BANIHASHEM: I do not expect it to change much.

Do you expect that you would be discriminated with here if the U.S. went to war with Iran?
BANIHASHEM: The first time I ever felt discrimination against me was here in the United States after 9/11 and a very close friend of mine, who is a nun and a PhD, said to me “why do you people come to this country?” and that was the first time I ever felt discriminated against, felt that she thought that people who came to this country were in this country because they were looking for something better or they had nothing before they came to this country and she viewed me as somebody who was here and a potential problem. I was disappointed by what people know about people who are different to them and it was very upsetting to me. So I have felt discrimination already whether it would be more so afterwards we’ll have to wait to see.

Do you have friends now in Iran?
BANIHASHEM: Friends, no. Family.

Are they fearful of a strike from the West?
BANIHASHEM: They live their daily lives but with a fear that it is a possibility and if that possibility comes to fruition what would they do?

Iran is totally different from Iraq. Iraq is not as advanced in its leadership.

With what has been going on with Iraq for the past five years with the U.S. invasion, the disruption of lives, it has to be on your mind I would think? If the U.S. were to invade Iran with an air strike, seeking out of course the nuclear sites but in many cases much, much more could be destroyed. Surgical strikes aren’t always so surgical. Tell me. You have family that is there. You remember these buildings as a child that your father designed, these roads your father designed, he showed you and you have family there, is this on your mind, when you look at what has happened in Iraq even further when you look at Abu Ghraib the prison, Guantanamo Bay, over and over again the behavior of the U.S. military, the people in Iran could end up being subject to the same type of events and behavior. Do you ever discuss this with anyone or is this ever on your mind?
BANIHASHEM: I don’t think I’ve ever thought of it in the way that you described it. And I hope that that of course would never happen. It’s heart wrenching to think that in a way it’s a civilization that goes back so many years and it would be destroyed in a matter of seconds. Iraq has been destroyed, including their economy, their people, their culture, everything has been affected and this could happen again in another country caused by the reasons President Bush gives which I don’t believe in.

There is an extreme religious division in Iraq among Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds, a division that was kept somewhat in order by brutal reign of Saddam Hussein. After the U.S. invasion, civil war erupted. Do these types of divisions exist in Iran?
BANIHASHEM: No. They do not. Firstly, the whole population is Shiite. Iran is totally different from Iraq. Iraq is not as advanced in its leadership.