As a result of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, many areas of the country are cut off from the world - neither phones nor the internet work. As of the end of February, only about one percent of existing communications have been functioning, according to the NetBlocks Organization. A limited number of contacts can still be made through some applications and platforms such as Imo, Telegram, WhatsApp and, less frequently, Instagram.
“I left the city after a building on our street was bombed“, says a 42-year-old single mother, who requested anonymity. At the beginning of the war, she did not expect to have to flee - she thought she would be able to stay at home until the strikes on officials of the Islamic Republic brought down the regime. On the third day of the war, however, she had to leave the city with her child and seek safer shelter with relatives in the suburbs. "We saw a few rockets fall," the woman says, glad to be out of Tehran.
Fear of poison rain
The city is also growing fearful of poisonous acid rain. After Israel attacked several oil depots around the capital, thick black smoke darkened the sky above the capital. Iran's environmental agency has urged the population to stay indoors, and the Red Crescent has warned that chemicals in rainwater can damage skin and lungs.
In addition to the oil depots, many other targets are in densely populated Tehran. In every attack, civilians are also killed, as they have no way to protect themselves because there are no sirens or shelters. According to the US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA), a total of 1,205 civilians have been killed in Iran since the start of the war, including at least 194 children, as of March 8. The number of military casualties is 187, but there are 316 more cases that are still unexplained, HRANA said.
Among the civilian casualties are at least 110 students aged between seven and 12 who were killed on the first day of the war in an attack on a school in Minab, in the south of the country. Independent investigations by teams from The New York Times and the Bellingcat platform have determined that the school was most likely hit by the US military, which would be a war crime.
Iran is not protecting its own citizens
“None of the warring parties is following the rules“, says Moin Hazaeli, an Iranian human rights expert who lives in Sweden. He adds that infrastructure sites, such as Iran's oil refineries, are not military targets in themselves. The same applies to civilian infrastructure sites and residential areas, which Iran attacks in neighboring countries.
“The Islamic Republic is not protecting its own population - there are no defensive bunkers or warning systems in the country, and there is no information on how people should behave in such a situation,” he points out. The Iranian human rights activist, political scientist and criminologist draws attention to the fact that the Islamic Republic bears responsibility for what is currently happening: “International organizations should insist that power in Iran be transferred peacefully, and the people should be able to decide for themselves how they want to live“.
In conversations with people in Iran who experienced the brutal suppression of the protests in the country in January, the desire for regime change by removing those responsible in the Islamic Republic was clearly felt. With each passing day that the war in Iran continues, however, the hope for a quick regime change is fading.
Many people are still in Tehran because they need to work and earn a living. Many fear that the situation will worsen even further after the appointment of the new Iranian leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
Author: Shabnam von Hein