Mandana Karimi says she plans to move back to Iran the moment the regime is gone: ‘I feel India has betrayed me’

Mandana Karimi has said that she has lost a lot of friends in Mumbai after she spoke about Iran and took part in protests.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint strike by the United States and Israel on Saturday. However, following his death, Iran vowed to take revenge and carried out retaliatory strikes across the Middle East. The assassination of Ali Khamenei in missile strikes from the US and Israel has plunged the Middle East into a full-blown conflict. Born in Iran, actor Mandana Karimi, who is currently based in India, has now told Instant Bollywood that she is ready to leave India and go back to Iran.

Mandana Karimi hopes to move back to Iran after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's death.

What Mandana said

Mandana said that 24 hours ago Iran brought someone to replace the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and so the message is clear that this regime has to go. She said, “What I see for Iran is a free Iran where women can do whatever they want, wear whatever they want, whatever university they want to go and study. I see Iran which has a great relationship with Middle East that we are not a threat to people. But we are a nation that builds the Middle East… The moment they announce that this regime is gone, I will go. Anyway, my bags are packed, and I am leaving India as well. That is the plan because I feel I am breaking up with India. It is very difficult for me because I came to India when I was really young. India has given me everything: my modelling career, my acting career, the love that I got, and the friends that I have. But I feel I don't have a voice in India.”

‘I feel India has betrayed me in a way’

She went on to add, "In these past two months, I have never felt so homesick and lonely in Bombay. I have a lot of friends here, but unfortunately, I went to protests, and I was talking about Iran so openly that I lost a lot of 'so-called' friends. I feel India has betrayed me in a way. India has given me what it was supposed to give, and now it's time to move on, and hopefully I am going to move to Iran."

Following the US-Israel strikes, Iran launched a wave of strikes, using drones and missiles targeting multiple Arab countries in the region, as a retaliatory action by the Islamic Republic. Iran is observing 40 days of public mourning following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ayatollah Khamenei was the successor to Ruhollah Khomeini.