How one Ontario mom is navigating fears for her Iranian family’s homeland — from schoolyard gossip to Trump’s taunts
It’s chaos.
At her home near Kawartha Lakes, Ont., Hollay Ghadery sits in her lounge with her laptop as her children rush over, dumping lunch bags and backpacks, kicking off shoes, and jostling to be first to tell her what happened at school.
“Let me speak first.” “No, you spoke first last time. It’s my turn!” “Mom, listen to me.”
Usually, it’s just gossip — who got in trouble, who bothered who. But lately, it’s been about remarks they’ve heard in school: that U.S. President Donald Trump is “freeing” their family’s homeland, Iran, by waging war; that Iranians should be happy about it. One of her children also heard a classmate claim that ISIS, falsely conflated with Iran, is planning an attack on the U.S. Moments like these can show how difficult it can be to parent through a war, even if it’s thousands of kilometres away.
The Star barely conceals the regime leanings of these Iranians one of whom is “Poet Laureate of Scugog Township.”
These are the officials of the Islamic Republic who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took 52 American diplomats and staff hostage for 444 days.
I grew up in their system.
From the age of seven, we were forced to chant “Death to America.” We were made to burn the… https://t.co/Abg8j0uys1 pic.twitter.com/IWgsh6PYQL
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) April 16, 2026
