Under Bombs and Checkpoints: A Voice from Tehran on War, Survival, and a Struggle Made Harder
A woman in Tehran describes fear, displacement, checkpoints, collapsing livelihoods, and a war that has tightened repression instead of opening any path for resistance.
This account is the voice of a woman from the heart of bombarded Tehran, from a city with no sirens, no shelter, no internet, and not even any way of knowing where the next explosion will hit. She speaks of fear, displacement, armed checkpoints, collapsing livelihoods, and the deep gap between the reality of war and the media image of it. It is an account of everyday life amid bombs, repression, and isolation from news, a place where ordinary people, more than anyone else, are paying the price of war.
The text below is the account of a woman describing the days of war in Tehran. These remarks were given on Friday, 22 Esfand 1404 (March 13, 2026). Radio Zamaneh has made no changes to the narrator’s words in order to remain faithful to what she said.
I managed to get online with difficulty. Unfortunately, there are people selling internet packages who are scammers, and after they take the money, they stop answering. What kind of conscience do they have? What kind of fellow countrymen are they, that in the middle of this disaster and war and stress, they do this kind of fraud? A lot of us are spending the little savings we had put aside for a day like this, for buying these internet packages.
(in a trembling, sorrowful voice) You must be reading the news, but things have gotten much worse. Even Iran International, which puts out so much useless news, was down for a few hours today. In any case, if someone is still alive and moving around right now, it is purely by chance. We are cut off from everywhere and know nothing. Since last night the attacks have become much more intense, and in Tehran every hour you hear terrifying explosions, and I do not know where they are hitting. Even through satellite media like Iran International, we only find out once they have already struck and it is all over. The situation is bad, and my mind is all over the place right now.
Their checkpoints have multiplied. Even if we want to go just to the corner of the street, the situation is terrifying. They stand at the corners with the barrels of their guns pointed at people, not at the sky or at fighter jets. They do not even bother to lower them. If one of them hears an explosion or sees some movement and accidentally pulls the trigger, he will hit us. Right now they are only on alert against people inside the country. We cannot move. They check cars, and their guns are ready, aimed at people. Drones have also attacked their forces, and presumably they are ready to fire. Out of fear or whatever else, at any moment someone’s finger could slip on the trigger and they could shoot at people, or hit someone’s fuel tank, and just imagine how many ordinary people could blow up.
The conditions are horrifying. It is not as pretty as the television channels show you. It is much darker than you can imagine.
The general condition of the people
At the beginning of the attacks, some people were happy, saying that in three or four days everything would be over, the regime would be gone, everything would be wonderful, everyone abroad would come back to Iran by New Year, and there would be celebrations. Now two weeks have passed, and no one knows when it will end, and the Islamic Republic has not stepped back one bit. It is fully standing by its position, even more firmly than before, and more wounded and more savage. Only now are people finally starting to understand what dark times lie ahead for them, and that everything is not as polished and elegant as they had been told. War has consequences. It brings poverty, death, destroyed homes. People are only now beginning to understand, and many have changed their views. Everyone is tired, worn out, frustrated, and displaced. Right now I myself am in one place with several families. We are war-displaced, and others have even taken refuge in our home. Even getting from one part of Tehran to another is difficult. Many people want to go back to their own homes, despite all the problems, because living in displacement is truly a disaster.
Any thought for the children?
No, there is no one. We are regarded as their enemy. Of course they are not going to think about us. And when an explosion happens and you run outside, we do not even know where we should go, what we should do, where we should flee. They have even reduced the gasoline quota for cars to 20 liters, and even if you have a car and want to start it and leave Tehran, you cannot go anywhere. There is no gasoline; you will stop in the middle of the road. The situation is bad, truly bad, not at all bearable. In this economic situation, and now this chaos.
The regime’s people, the wealthy, and the compounded misery of the lower-middle and working classes
During these days, through talking with people and seeing things in the streets and at demonstrations and government ceremonies and so on, I realized that the Islamic Republic has more supporters than I had imagined. In reality, a lot of people are tied to this system. Of course, maybe some people, under wartime conditions and foreign attack, became emotional and joined these demonstrations to show opposition to war, people you would never expect. But many of them do not want the Islamic Republic to go. The war makes no difference to them. Those with money have left Tehran and, as they say, gone off to the summer resorts. Many of them are precisely those connected to the Islamic Republic. The ones forced to stay are people like us, ordinary people who oppose the Islamic Republic, and in fact most of us from the lower-middle and working classes. Those who have money, or are connected to the system one way or another, have left the city and are not under threat. They have gone somewhere safe, and when things become normal they will come back. These are not ordinary people. The ones who are harmed are the lower-middle and poorer classes.
Do people support the war? Can they stockpile food?
If there was anyone from our social class, the middle and below, who before the war or at the beginning of it said “Uncle Trump” and thanked Trump and Netanyahu, now that they have seen what these past few days have brought and have become displaced, distraught, under pressure, and afraid, they have fallen silent and no longer say “Uncle Trump.” Right now people are in shock and do not know what on earth they are supposed to do. Now we hear that this situation is supposed to last longer, and all those estimates those television channels and political figures gave us, saying everything would be over happily in four nights, were all lies. Now people are left with a long, exhausting path, and the internet is cut off for us, and the television channels lie or go dark, which makes it even worse.
Some people also say people should come into the streets. I honestly do not know whether these people have any sense of reality. How are people supposed to communicate with one another? Communication is impossible. Who is going to come to our aid? I honestly do not understand those people who call on people to come into the streets, or that television channel which tells people to prepare food for six months. Do they even understand what they are saying? Do people even have the money to buy six months of food and store it? Do you have any estimate at all? Do you understand reality? People who do not have jobs, or if they do, can survive for at most one month. People do not even know how they will get through next week. Even we, fearing for our lives, had saved a little money for emergencies. Now we are spending that too on five-gig internet packages just so we can call family, and that is only if we do not get scammed and are actually given the package.
Add the sound of fighter jets and bombardment to all this. The situation is terrifying. Some people think, or promote the idea, that war is some elegant, clean, pinpoint operation, and they have no idea. They have to be here. They have to see the cracks in the walls, the shattered windows, the sound of the explosion. The whole structure of the house shakes even if they hit another neighborhood, and window frames are ripped out. They have to see the fear, the people running, someone clutching a child and not even knowing where to run. A person has to be here to understand. Whatever I say will not be enough.
Has struggle become easier after this war? Are people content with war?
I honestly do not know anymore. Maybe there is someone inside Iran who loves war, and frankly it no longer matters to me who does or does not. I am saying the situation is horrific. I cried the whole day today. I always thought I was very strong. You really have to be here to know what kind of situation we are in. But if anyone, in these current conditions and with all the calamities that have come down on people, thinks this war has made our struggle easier, I would like to know what exactly they mean and what their argument is. It is very interesting and very strange to me that anyone could say such a thing now, after two weeks.
How do they think? How can they continue the struggle against the Islamic Republic under bombardment? I would like someone to explain it to me. We cannot even put one foot outside the door. We are completely under control. Their machine guns are in the middle of the street. It was not like this before. If now once again we are supposed to go into the streets and be killed, well, we were already being killed in the streets before. So why did war have to be added on top of that?
Even building networks to help is impossible, because this system treats it as espionage for Israel and America. Radan said their hand is on the trigger. In these conditions, text messages arrive threatening us. This is one of the messages they sent to our phones:
People of Iran, greetings.
In the first statement related to the January uprising, it was announced that street unrest would be the prelude to a military strike.
Now the wicked enemy, frustrated in achieving its battlefield objectives, is once again trying to spread fear and street unrest. Of course, a harder blow than on 18 Dey 1404 (January 8, 2026) awaits the “neo-Daeshis.”
Your continuous presence on the scene and ongoing cooperation with the 110, 113, and 114 hotlines; our day-and-night struggle against the “internal traitors.”
#The_Last_Battle
IRGC Intelligence Organization
Now let someone, especially if they are inside the country and know the conditions like I do, tell me how one is supposed to organize for struggle, for demonstrations, and so on. This war made everything worse and made the conditions of struggle harder too.
Checkpoints throughout the city; the possibility of struggle under war
There are checkpoints everywhere, and we have heard that some of them are attacked, but then other people just come and replace them. In my view, anyone who wants to do anything has to be careful and take checkpoints and many other things into account. Some media outlets outside the country portray the killing of four officers at a checkpoint as if the ground is being prepared for an uprising. I do not believe it. I honestly do not know what these people imagine about the size of the neighborhoods and districts of Tehran, about Tehran itself, and about the size of the country. Is the whole country just two alleys and two checkpoints? Some people have very crude and strange ideas.
I wish I could understand what goes on in the imagination of these media outlets that speak like this, that they say such fantastical things. Right now I would like them to come and explain to me what tactical advantages and opportunities for struggle I have gained in this war that make it safer for me to go into the streets and protest. Why has it not happened? But I think people inside are understanding the situation more and more. Livelihoods are destroyed too. This is turning into a longer, more grinding situation, especially if this war drags on.
If the Islamic Republic goes or stays; what then for struggle?
If the Islamic Republic stays, that means something even more frightening and more horrific than before will be unleashed on us, and that reality cannot be ignored. If the war ends and the Islamic Republic is gone, then we will have to see what the conditions are. My view is that whatever we say, we should speak realistically, and when we describe a situation, we should not be dreamy and only cherry-pick the nice and pretty parts.
If the war ends and the Islamic Republic is gone, my personal opinion is that if the option others are boldfacing and pushing is supposed to replace the Islamic Republic, that does not work for me either. That is not acceptable to me, and it is not in my interest as an ordinary person. Unless the balance is turned by the people of Iran themselves and a democratic government is established. Otherwise, if after the Islamic Republic there is once again a puppet government, then it becomes another version of what existed before, and for us it is the repetition of bitterness in a new form. It is like swallowing again something you have already vomited up.
I am looking at these monsters around me. They are like ticks stuck to flesh, and separating them is hard. They are not going to leave easily, and by the time they do, I do not even know whether anything of Iran will still remain for us. Maybe I am pessimistic, but I also cannot be naively optimistic, as though some people are going to come and hand everything to us on a silver platter and everything will become wonderful.
What has the result been now? Two weeks of this war have passed, and they have hit so many places. What has its result been for me, an ordinary person? What help have these bombardments and this destruction given our struggle? Other than making us more miserable, more destitute, and worsening our conditions. If before we could do something in the struggle, under wartime conditions we cannot even do that same thing. If now, under wartime conditions, we are supposed to go into the streets and be killed, well, we were already doing that before and being killed. So why was this war added to our misery, and what was its benefit? These monsters have only become more savage and more wounded. The process of our struggle had been underway for years, and we were doing our own work. So what was this war, this killing, and this destruction for, when it has made the conditions of struggle harder?
War for whose benefit? What are the dances for?
Some people say the issue was enriched uranium and that the attack was to take that. My question is this: did they take that uranium from them? Maybe one day we will hear that America and Israel even came to an agreement with them over that very uranium. Maybe they want to strike a deal over Khark Island, or over uranium. Then what was the achievement of this war, and what did we gain from it, other than that it benefited others?
As one report Iran International posted and then quickly removed said, the only ones who profited were Russia and China. We the people gained nothing, and I think even for America and Israel there will be no real achievement. I think we ordinary people are nothing more than a plaything and leftover scraps in this game. I do not understand why some people are happy and think that some people have come to save them. This is nothing but delusion. I do not know why they cannot understand that we the people are nothing to the world powers, nothing to our own government, and nothing to anyone else. We have no value for them. How do you think someone is going to come save you?
This is how I see it. Maybe it is bitter and upsetting. Maybe someone else has a more optimistic view. Time will make it clear. Like the person who before the war, or at the beginning of it, said “Uncle Trump,” but now that two weeks have passed and they have seen that the result was not what they imagined, they have fallen silent. If a little more time passes, perhaps people will understand more of the realities, that this is no joke and not simple. If they strike our electricity, we miserable people are the ones who will suffer. No one is going to come save you while you dance for this war.
It is very bitter that we are under this disaster and misery while some people dance. If these are supposed to be my compatriots, then I do not want compatriots. Like the one who, in these conditions, takes money for an internet package and then cheats us. Or those who dance. They are not my compatriots. Are you dancing for our misery and displacement? What kind of gathering is this? You are not our voice. You are shouting what you yourselves want, not the voice of us inside the country. You are shouting your own imagination, not our desire. Someone who wants to bring another disaster down on our heads is not my compatriot.
There is no point even arguing with these people anymore. With their slogans and their behavior, they struck us in ways they should not have. You are dancing on top of our ruins and opening vodka? If this war ends and anything of Iran is left at all, I know the people inside will pay no attention to them anymore and will decide things for themselves. So in my view, there is no point clashing with those people who have their own delusions and slogans, who are pleased with war, and who want to put their own man in place after the Islamic Republic. We have to do our own work. Their slogans do not matter anymore.
I have a question for Iranians abroad. Can none of you tell Iran International to at least broadcast a few different voices? How can a media outlet behave like this? How is it that, through the lens of this outlet, everyone who calls from Iran ends their speech with “Long live the Shah”? Does that mean there is not even one person like me who says something else? Why are they doing this? There has to be some limit. Even the Islamic Republic lets a few different opinions through, but this outlet has officially closed the file and wants to force one thing on people. If anyone has contact with them, tell them to explain why they are doing this. I am not saying it is the most important thing, but right now the other satellite channels have had their frequencies blocked, and this one remains, so there should be some solution.
I would very much like you to show me one person who is in Iran and can explain to me how, in these conditions and with this war and this situation of officers and checkpoints and repression, this war could possibly be helping our struggle. Right now it has brought absolutely no help and no achievement in making the struggle against the Islamic Republic simpler or easier. Any illusion that we have somehow been freed and can come into the streets… no. The situation and the possibility of struggle became worse and harder.
About Reza Pahlavi and his statements and positions
This man whose image we see in Iran and on that media outlet comes, in the middle of all this misery we are in, and tells us that while we are under bombardment, okay, just gradually get your things ready because you have to go into the streets. That is it. He does not tell you where you are supposed to go and what you are supposed to do, what practical plan there is, what strategy, under what conditions, with which forces, and with what concrete calculation of cost, benefit, and result, and all of this under these dire conditions.
Does he have any idea at all about the inside of the country? Does he even know what the streets look like? Have you ever even stepped outside your own front door? Do you know what is what, and what Iran, and Tehran for example, and our actual conditions are like? The whole thing has become absurd. The young people in our family, when they see him on television, the moment he starts speaking they burst out laughing. They laugh and say, we are in this situation now, and then this man says go outside and protest. No one can believe that we are under intensified repression. Right now we even tremble and shake when we go to work or move from one place to another. It is a kind of martial law, and the situation has become chaotic, and in my opinion it will get worse. I think even harder days are still ahead.
Work and getting through daily life under these conditions
How do we spend our days? With great difficulty. Our work has been disrupted. Some of us have lost our jobs. Some have had their income cut off. We have to sit at home and have access to nowhere. It is as if we are in a cell with four cellmates and can only speak to them, and we are not supposed to put our foot outside the door, because the atmosphere is intensely securitized and like martial law.
Some people have given up on work and are sitting at home thinking about whether they will be fired after New Year, whether this month’s salary will be paid, whether they will be able to pay rent at the end of the month. Some people were supposed to report to private companies from Saturday because they are afraid of being fired and want to be able to cover the rent, and they go with the fear that a bomb might fall on them at any moment. If this situation and this war have taken any burden off our shoulders… no. Let me put it this way: I cried all day today. I cannot describe it. I do not know who I am, what I am, what my existence even is. Am I a woman, a person, a child, an adult? We are trapped. We are in limbo. On one side there are bombs, destruction, the sound of fighter jets, and an unknown future, and on the other side these beasts of the Islamic Republic.
I did not know the Islamic Republic had this many agents, people who are now spending time in their villas outside the city in the countryside, and when all this is over they will come back, while we are under bombs and fighter jets and under stress. They return to normal life, and it does not matter to them what happens. What remains is the lower-middle and poorer classes, who as always will be crushed. If up to now we were not killed by the Islamic Republic’s gunfire and machine guns, you may hear next that we will die from bombardment, or from poverty and malnutrition and other forms of misery, assuming our electricity and water and gas are not cut off in the coming days.
About the call for strike
We know nothing about the future. I have only now, through immense hardship, managed to connect to the internet, and only now am I finding out what kinds of people in this world have said what and done what. We do not know even about our tomorrow, even about one hour from now, whether we will still exist or not. So my question is this: that gentleman who calls for strike, do people have money? Has money been transferred into their accounts so they can strike? People are going to work under stress so they will not be fired, so they can pay their rent.
The one who calls for strike… can he tell me where people are supposed to get the cost of living from for one month or six months of strike? Do you understand people’s lives at all? Do you understand what the cost of living means? Do you understand how they are supposed to pay for their children? How is it that every once in a while you drop down on top of us like a nightmare? Some of us, out of fear, fearing for our lives, stay home and do not go out, and you say we should strike? Some go to work out of fear, and you say we should strike? I really do not understand.
We say we gave the dead in the streets, and he says it was for me. We say we sat at home, fearing for our lives so we would not go under the bombs, and he says that too was for me. We say one thing, and you say it was because of me. I do not understand this person. If someone turned up and said he and the Revolutionary Guards are in league with each other, maybe then the matter would make sense and perhaps we are getting too angry for nothing. That at least would be understandable. But what cannot be understood or believed is that someone could be this foolish. I do not think he is. I think he is doing these things knowingly.
How is it that every oppression inflicted on us gets invoiced in your name? We the people pay all the costs, and then the bill is issued in someone else’s name, and we are not allowed to speak, not allowed to ask, not allowed to raise our voices? Then the government these people want is worse than the Islamic Republic, with this savage attitude they have. What is the difference? The Islamic Republic cuts off my head, and they would too. They are no different. You two groups, what is the difference between you? Why do we the people always have to be indebted and keep silent so that someone else can come and rule over us? We were already living our wretched lives, and we were struggling too. What was this war? What was it supposed to change? Someone tell me if I am wrong. A person could have a stroke in this situation.
How can it be that we live in this misery, and then this man comes, hands on hips, giving us orders and telling us what to do? You should not treat even a cow like that, let alone us, who are human beings. If there are people who, trusting this man or trusting this war and the alternative they believe in, want to act, then fine, let them. Let them once again go and become someone else’s servants. Are there not already people who are servants of the Islamic Republic? There are also people who accept being servants of that man. It should not be surprising.
About the division among the people, and whether there is solidarity
During the January uprising, and around the call for 18 and 19 Dey 1404 (January 8 and 9, 2026), we saw a split created among the people. An aunt from the Netherlands, for example, would call me in Iran and say, you must support the Pahlavis, otherwise you are ruining unity. This happened in many families. It created so much conflict, disagreement, division, separation, and hostility between people inside and outside the country. Friends, comrades, and family members stopped speaking to one another and fought. A very absurd and ugly atmosphere was created.
But after those days, after about a month had passed, a bit more of the truth became clear and people understood more. Before that, society had been turned into two opposing camps. Afterward, the atmosphere became a little better and a little more realistic, and many people understood what the truth was, and tolerance improved somewhat. But with the issue of war, the same thing happened again. Pro-war and anti-war, though in reality neither side had much agency. In the first two or three days, especially because of Khamenei’s killing, we were happy. Many people were happy, I mean the general public, not commentators and such. They were happy and thought this system was finished. But after two weeks, and with all this destruction everywhere, especially here where I am, in Tehran, and with how horrific the situation is, it is as though many people are waking up from a long winter sleep and slowly understanding that the story is not the sunshine-and-roses tale they were told, not something that would end in a night or two, and that the issue is becoming entrenched, that the situation is deepening, that people are desperate.
I am talking about people who are not feeding from the Islamic Republic. Government supporters are not harmed. Even if their house is destroyed, they will rebuild it for them. They do not do that for everyone. I am talking about ordinary people, who now understand that the situation has worsened and that everything was not solved in two nights. What on earth are ordinary people supposed to do in these conditions? There is no solution by which one can draw victory out of war. And we do not have internet either. The last news I had was the coalition of Kurdish currents, which for me personally was welcome, and after that I had no news until today when I managed to connect. I have no other news. All there is is this Iran International garbage. That is all.
If there were internet, people could see many truths. Right now each person can only see what is within the scope of their own life and relationships. Or what Iran International broadcasts, and that too is always people sending videos of thanks and joy, as though they live on another planet. I do not understand it. I do not think this misery and this problem will end anytime soon. This government has not retreated, conditions have become harder for us, and protest and being in the streets in these conditions is impossible. In my opinion, this war and what they have done brought not the smallest benefit to the people. What exactly is hopeful in this for the people?
The situation of salaried workers, retirees, overdue wages, and so on; how do people get provisions? Do they have money?
Social Security workers, teachers, and medical staff: I know that pension payments for Bahman 1404 (January–February 2026) were received. I do not know what will happen with Esfand 1404 (February–March 2026) and the New Year bonus. Private companies, I honestly do not know what will happen there, whether they will pay wages or not. It depends on the company.
As for people’s necessities, for now we do not have shortages of food and such inside Iran. The issue is financial ability and purchasing power, which most people lack. Goods are there for sale; people do not have the money to buy them. Truly, in these conditions and with the current inflation, if someone goes, say, two months without receiving wages, what are they supposed to do? I cannot even imagine it. If a middle-income family in Iran can only buy necessities week by week and think about survival, then they cannot think about anything else, and at best perhaps a little money remains so they can maybe buy internet with it. I am speaking of the outer limit. For those below the middle, the situation is much worse. If their home collapses, what becomes of them? We know nothing. We have no news. And in my opinion, one reason the Islamic Republic is not reopening the net for people is precisely this: it does not want you to see and hear these accounts, to see the destruction, to see Tehran’s destruction. That is why it does not open the internet for us. Because then everything would spread, and people could come forward and speak, say what they have to say.
It is like when Qassem Soleimani was killed. I remember they shut the internet on us then too. It is the same now. This has been its tactic all the way until now while we are under war. That is what it does, and perhaps in its own view this is the revenge it is taking on us, the people. We are cut off from everything. Do I know right now what state my neighbor is in? No. Unless you go into the street and, say, see four people collapsed there from hunger. That is how you can find out. News: zero.
The Islamic Republic has four pathetic messaging apps, under names like Bale, Eita, and Rubika. These still work inside Iran on the national internet. If people outside Iran have phones that are useless to them in Iran, they can install these pathetic apps on those phones and, for now, at least stay in contact with their families and hear how their loved ones are doing. But the important thing is that you should install them only on phones that have absolutely no information on them, because the moment you install one of these apps, everything on that phone will fall into their hands. They should only be installed on junk phones that contain nothing.
Sending money from abroad; are accounts being checked?
I do not think accounts are being checked. But I think it is better if you send under fifty million tomans, or send in smaller amounts to different accounts. Help your families. It is good, because everyone is in very bad economic conditions. Send money to your relatives through safe methods. At least then they can buy internet and keep in touch. Food and the rest are another matter.
Before attacks, are there sirens or warnings?
Very unfortunately, I have to say no. There are no sirens. There is no rescue either. There are no sirens. You only become aware of the bomb when the fighter jets are over your head, so close that you can easily see them in the sky, and then a few minutes later you hear that somewhere has exploded. Now, where that place is, what it was, who it was, and so on, no one knows anything because there is no access, no information is exchanged, and with a very long delay we maybe see one or two clips on Iran International that such-and-such place was bombed. There is no siren, no one who comes to help you, and no one who comes to save you.
Right now in Iran everyone is just trying to save themselves. There is not much else they can do. What can someone over there do for me or for anyone else? Or what can I do for the person next to me? Everyone is just trying somehow to stay alive in these conditions. Unfortunately that is the situation that has arisen. No, there is nothing. Nothing, nothing. Once in a while Iran International announces, if you have seen it, that Israel has said such-and-such area should be evacuated. Even then, if someone happens to see it in time, maybe, just maybe, they can evacuate or go somewhere temporarily. If they do not see it, then they do not even know that. There is absolutely no official announcement from the Islamic Republic’s own channels.
There is no option by which you can know what area is about to be attacked. And anyway, right now the sky is not in Iran’s hands at all. The Islamic Republic is in contact with people inside through those apps I mentioned, but the news it is covering there is as though nothing at all has happened in the country, and it constantly pumps out the message that we are winning, America is afraid of us, Israel is afraid of us, that one is afraid of us, and we are the final victor on the field. A pile of nonsense. They even use the hashtag The_Last_Battle now. I mention that only as a joke.
An anti-war campaign?
Look, a No to War campaign: when we want to talk about it, unfortunately there are still minds in this atmosphere that the moment you raise the issue, they accuse you of supporting the Islamic Republic. Of course, there may well be people connected to that apparatus who speak against war, so that is not impossible either. Some people inside also do not want to accept and confront certain realities about the truth of this war. But as this war becomes prolonged, and as civilian killings may happen as easily as drinking water, some people may close their eyes to these realities and say that it does not matter, or that these are all costs and casualties that we must pay. I do not know.
But I would like you to ask this question of many people like me who are inside Iran: given the conditions that have emerged inside Iran, do you think a way has opened for you? Do you think your situation has become better? Those are the questions you can ask them. Are you happy with this situation right now? Are you hopeful about the future? What do you think? If I myself were now to raise a slogan or campaign against war, hands would immediately go up saying, listen, we were on the verge of victory and people like you did not let us win. And someone like me, anti-war, may step back. I too may become one of the casualties. But I will step back, because I cannot do anything else. That is their opinion. What can I do? Their view is that. My view, and the view of many others, is that this war made us more wretched and gave us no benefit and no opening. The number of people who think this is growing much larger.
All these years up to now I had never directly stated an opinion about war. Now, given Iran’s current conditions, if some political figure abroad who keeps issuing statements gives a call, how exactly are the people of Iran supposed to go into the streets? And if they go this time, will they once again be butchered in the streets or not? Can they answer that? Or, like last time, are they going to say that if you were killed it does not matter because war has casualties?
Pinpoint strikes? Fear? Or indifference?
If someone is not afraid in these conditions, that is very strange. Either that person has lost their mind, or they are connected to the system. How can you be in these conditions and not feel your heart shake? I myself thought I was a very brave person. Maybe some people experienced war during the Iran-Iraq war. But what is happening now is a horrifying process. Friends need to get out of this fantasy of pinpoint strikes. There are no pinpoint strikes. In some events, yes, the single apartment unit you see in the video was hit. Fine. But do you also see the rest of it? The street below that building, the car that happened to be passing, the cars down there, the blast wave reaching far away, the lower floors, the people who were not part of a military family… what pinpoint strike are we talking about?
I only understood what the reality was when I saw it with my own eyes. There is no such thing as pinpoint targeting, and the idea that they did the job cleanly is false. Did you not see the ambulances below the building, and the people coming out in distress, covered in dust? Can anyone inside the country come tell me it was a pinpoint strike and no one was harmed? No, dear. It is war. Now, if someone likes that, fine. Time will make it clear.
Under Bombs and Checkpoints: A Voice from Tehran on War, Survival, and a Struggle Made Harder #Tehran #WarSurvival
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