Actor Mandana Karimi has been expressing her frustration with the current situation in India amid the US-Iran conflict. It all started after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint strike by the United States and Israel in March. The assassination of Ali Khamenei in missile strikes from the US and Israel plunged the Middle East into a full-blown conflict. Born in Iran, Mandana has now taken to her Instagram account to clarify to fans that she has taken the decision to leave India and bid goodbye to her ‘second home’ after almost 16 years.
What Mandana said
Taking to her Instagram Stories, Mandana did an AMA session where she replied to fan questions. One fan asked, ‘Have you left Mumbai for good? Do you miss the city?’ In response, Mandana shared a video of herself recording a statement from the airport, in which she said, “I never could imagine or believe that I could say, but Goodbye India.”
She went on to add, “This is going to be hard. But after almost 16 years in India, its finally… leaving behind my second home… and here it is to new beginnings. New country, new home, new everything.”
More details
In March, Mandana had shared that she will not move to Iran because she was banned there a decade ago. She said, “I have been banned from Iran 10 years ago. I cannot go back to Iran. Yes, I am leaving India; I am moving out of India, but I am not going back to Iran. I am upset at India because for the past few months, I didn’t get any support in India, and suddenly, when Khamenei is dead, when Israel and America’s name has come into the picture, everyone has an opinion in India. Everyone is on the streets, and they can actually mourn for Khamenei, which I couldn’t do it, and I still cannot do it.”
She went on to add, “Because of the security reasons, I have been stuck at one place, and none of my even closest friends have my location because of safety reason, and still I am trying to talk to the media to amplify the voices of Iranians the ones who are still getting killed. The last thing… I haven’t been acting in movies for the past six years. That was my decision to stop acting in movies. So many of you guys are saying why do you have an opinion? I have an opinion because I am Iranian. I know what is happening in my country, I was born and raised there and I left at the age of 18.”
On the work front, the actor was last seen in the 2022 Netflix film Thar. She has taken a break from acting in recent years. She was also part of the reality show Lock Upp (2022).