As a psychiatrist living in the United States, Dr Jamshid Bakhtiar analyses Iran’s post-election crisis in academic terms, but his views are rooted in deeply-felt personal experience: he lived through the tumult of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and its turbulent aftermath.  Once Iran’s clergy took power, he says, it was assumed they would not oppress, having themselves been oppressed by the monarchy. But, Dr Bakhtiar says, those who have been oppressed often unconsciously identify with their former tormentors and “even though you think that you’ve gained your freedom, you act just like the oppressors that you wanted to get away from”. Iran’s rulers “treat the nation’s adults as if they were children”.

Yet, Dr Bakhtiar, 75, is optimistic that the hunger for truth and freedom manifested in the huge demonstrations against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “stolen” re-election represents “a transformative opportunity for Iran”.

His optimism is shared by many Iranians living abroad who, while appalled by the regime’s iron-fisted clampdown on pro-democracy protesters, believe Iran has reached a historic turning point where the genie cannot be thrust back into the bottle.

Dr Bakhtiar’s nephew, Jahanshah Javid, an Iranian-American of a younger generation, edits a popular community website that gives him a unique insight into the views of the Iranian diaspora. “Democracy is an idea whose time has come for Iranians. We may not see this regime fall apart in months or even years, but we have turned a corner,” he says.

Dr Bakhtiar, who lives in Charles Town, West Virginia, comes from a pioneering family with fascinating life stories. In 1957 he became the first Iranian to achieve the “All American” title for his record-breaking performance on the football field at the University of Virginia. The strapping, 93kg fullback was nicknamed the “Iranian Prince” and the “Iron Iranian”.

His father, Abol Ghassem Bakhtiar, was thought to be the first Iranian to train as a physician in the US: he left Iran to do so in 1919. Twelve years later, accompanied by his equally impressive American wife, Helen Jeffreys, a nurse, Abol Ghassem returned to Iran. The pair – one of the first Iranian-American couples – devoted their lives to public health work in Iran, where Helen is buried alongside her husband and has a mountain named in her honour.

Inspired by his parents’ selfless example, Dr Bakhtiar – known as Jim to his American friends – left a comfortable life in the US in 1974, taking his wife and family to Iran where he established the country’s first modern psychiatry unit at the University of Isfahan. Within years, they were caught up in the Islamic Revolution.

Islam embodies “wonderful ethical value systems”, says Dr Bakhtiar, but he was always a firm believer in the separation of church – or mosque – and state. His uneasiness with the revolution grew as the authorities began to execute many from the old regime. “It became very bloody at times … it became ugly and I knew something was wrong,” he says.