‘No way to call home’: Iranian American founder says war forced wedding cancellation

💔🌍 Iranian American AI executive Kiana Ehsani has sparked widespread emotional reactions online after sharing a deeply personal account of how the ongoing Iran conflict has disrupted her life, separated families, and intensified fear among Iranians living abroad.

Ehsani, who works at Anthropic and previously co-founded Vercept, revealed that she was supposed to travel to Türkiye for her wedding celebration, where her family from Iran and her partner’s family would finally meet for the first time. The wedding had been carefully planned as an intimate gathering on the Mediterranean coast, but escalating regional tensions and canceled flights out of Iran forced the couple to call everything off.

In her emotional post on X, Ehsani described the painful reality many Iranian diaspora families are currently facing — uncertainty, blocked communication, travel restrictions, and the constant fear of losing contact with loved ones. She shared how even simple traditions, like her weekly Friday calls with her grandmother in Iran, have become impossible because international calls and internet access have reportedly been heavily restricted.

The post also highlighted growing immigration anxiety among Iranians living in the United States. Ehsani explained that after spending more than a decade in America and recently becoming eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship, new executive actions targeting Iranians left her uncertain about her future. She also raised concerns about visa holders who may now face major risks if forced to leave the U.S. during immigration processing while travel restrictions and long visa backlogs remain in place.

Beyond politics and policy, Ehsani’s message resonated because it captured the emotional exhaustion experienced by many immigrants trying to maintain normal lives while worrying constantly about family members trapped inside conflict zones. She described burying herself in work as one of the few ways to cope with the fear, uncertainty, and emotional pain surrounding the crisis.

Her post quickly spread across social media, with many users describing it as a powerful reminder that wars and geopolitical conflicts are not just international headlines — they deeply affect ordinary families, relationships, mental health, immigration journeys, and entire diaspora communities around the world.

“I’m not okay. None of us are okay. We are just barely holding it together,” Ehsani wrote — a line that many online said reflected the emotional reality facing countless Iranians living far from home during one of the most uncertain periods in recent years. 🕊️