OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
4:30 PM – Wednesday, June 17, 2025
Iranian dissidents are scoffing Whoopi Goldberg’s “offensive” assertion equating the experiences of Black Americans to life under Iran’s oppressive autocratic regime, calling the comparison both misguided and deeply insensitive.
“Whoopi Goldberg’s comparison between being black in America and living under Iran’s authoritarian regime is deeply misguided and dismisses the brutal realities faced by millions of Iranians,” Dr. Sheila Nazarian told Fox News Digital.
Nazarian is an Iranian‑American plastic surgeon and entrepreneur. Born in New York in 1979 to Iranian parents, her guardians returned to Iran soon after. However, following the Islamic Revolution, life became increasingly dangerous for them due to rising political instability. As bombs from the Iran–Iraq War began to fall near their home, her father, who was a prominent pathologist at the time—arranged an escape. He left first under the pretense of attending a medical conference, entrusting his wife and daughters’ passports to officials. Later, in 1985, Nazarian, her mother, and sister were hidden under burlap and corn in the back of a truck, where they were smuggled across Iran’s border into Pakistan. After a harrowing journey and months in Pakistan, they reunited with her father and secured U.S. visas. By age seven, Sheila and her family finally settled in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile on “The View,” Goldberg ignited backlash during a heated exchange with her co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin on Wednesday’s episode.
Griffin highlighted the extensive “human rights violations” committed by Iran’s ayatollah-led regime, citing examples such as the execution of suspected LGBTQ+ individuals and the incarceration of women for appearing in public without head coverings, with some women being punished even if they are wearing their hijab in a way that displeases leadership.
- In Iran: Women can be arrested, fined, and even imprisoned for “improper hijab.” Men can divorce their wives at will, but women can only initiate divorce under limited conditions, such as abuse, abandonment, or infertility. Married women need their husband’s written permission to get a passport or travel abroad, and after divorce, custody of children over a certain age typically goes to the father.
“Let’s not do that, because if we start with that, we have been known in this country to tie gay folks to the car. Listen, I’m sorry, they used to just keep hanging black people,” Goldberg said as Griffin pushed back on her seemingly outlandish claim — maintaining that the situations weren’t at all comparable.
“In the year 2025 in the United States, is nothing like if I step foot wearing this outfit into Iran right now,” Griffin responded.
“It is the same,” Goldberg asserted, later rolling her eyes.
When Griffin sought to illustrate the stark contrast between life in modern-day America and the theocratic rule of Iran, Goldberg interjected with a stubborn rebuttal: “Not if you’re black.”
Nazarian continued to express to Fox News that Goldberg’s “misguided” comparison was not only factually wrong, but profoundly offensive for Iranian dissidents like her.
“While racism is a serious and ongoing challenge in the US, comparing this to life under a totalitarian theocracy like Iran is not only inaccurate — it’s offensive to those who suffer daily under that regime. In Iran, the government controls nearly every aspect of life. People can be imprisoned, tortured, raped or even executed for peaceful protests, for criticizing the regime, or simply expressing their opinions online,” Nazarian stated.
Iran’s theocratic regime remains deeply unpopular among its own population, with widespread anti-government protests erupting regularly across the Islamic Republic. The country was thrust into a wave of nationwide unrest following the killing of Mahsa Amini—a young Kurdish woman—by the police for violating mandatory hijab laws.
An Iranian journalist chimed in on the topic as well.
“It’s astonishing that Whoopi Goldberg would even suggest that life for black Americans is somehow equivalent to living under the rule of the ayatollah in Iran. The very fact that she, as a woman — and a woman of color — has a platform where she can speak freely, express dissenting views, and appear uncovered on national television is proof of the immense freedoms she enjoys,” Iranian-American journalist Lisa Daftari told the press.
Lastly, in an op‑ed, Majid Rafizadeh, a political scientist, human rights defender and journalist from Iran, also denounced the comparison as being extremely delusional in regard to the terror that Iranians face daily due to their leadership.
“In Iran, you’re constantly watched. You can be arrested for a word, for a haircut… They torture people. They execute dissidents,” he asserted.
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