Anxious days, sleepless nights for young Iranians in Hong Kong as war rages on

Life for Hong Kong-based Iranian biomedical researcher Behzad Nasiri Ahmadabadi is filled with anxiety as he spends each day waiting for a call from his family that may not come amid the conflict in the Middle East.The stress is similar for Iranian student Ali*, who spends his days scrolling through news reports from across the world to piece together events on the ground and lies awake at night thinking about what they mean.Young Iranians in Hong Kong are dealing with the conflict in a variety of ways, from constantly analysing news and correcting misinformation to simply waiting for messages that their loved ones in Iran are still safe.But they share one thing in common – a feeling of powerlessness over a conflict raging thousands of kilometres away.Continued strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel have triggered retaliatory attacks and raised fears of a wider regional war, with civilians facing growing risks and uncertainty. Iran-backed Houthi rebels joined the fray in late March by firing missiles at Israel from Yemen.Ali, who asked that his real name not be used, said he was constantly trying to make sense of the flood of conflicting information.“There’s a lot of contradictory reporting that you’re seeing everywhere,” he said. “It’s very difficult to actually understand what’s going on … and without that [clarity], it’s hard to think about how we can move forward.”