For decades, I carried anger and heartbreak about Iran so deep I thought it had become an unmovable part of me. Watching the current protests has brought up emotions I thought were long buried. The familiar ache that comes from loving a country that’s caused so much pain for so many.

The protests in Iran began on a Sunday, Dec. 28, first among shopkeepers and bazaar workers, then involving university students. Within days, demonstrations spread to cities across the country and have continued for almost three weeks. As in previous times in the past two decades, the government’s response has been swift. Security forces have escalated violence to intimidate protesters. Unarmed civilians have been killed.

These protests are the product of years of ongoing economic collapse layered onto decades of repression. Iran has been trapped in an economic crisis marked by persistent inflation, low growth, corruption and international isolation. The national currency, the rial, has steadily disintegrated. About a decade ago, it traded at

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