Between bombs and blackouts, Iranians are trapped in a deepening crisis
By Kara Fox, Leila Gharagozlou, Adam Pourahmadi, CNN
(CNN) — The streets of Tehran are eerily quiet – until the bombs come.
“It feels like a ghost town. No one is coming and going. It feels like a soulless city, zombies – like the walking dead – if you see anyone in the streets,” one 30-year-old Tehran resident told CNN on Friday morning, hours after intense airstrikes pounded the Iranian capital for a sixth day.
“People were panicking. But some were watching the jets from the windows, as if they had come to the movies,” he said.
“These are really strange and unknown days we are living through,” another Tehran resident told CNN on Wednesday. “We’re all stuck between not knowing whether to be happy or sad.”
The United States and Israel have conducted coordinated strikes on Iran since February 28, prompting retaliatory attacks that have escalated into a widening war across the Middle East.
For many Iranians, the war stirs a complicated mix of emotions.
For those who have long wished to see the brutally repressive regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gone, there is hope. For pro-regime supporters, the days of mourning have only just begun, amid questions over the regime’s future following US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise to target Khamenei’s successors.
The situation is yet more complicated for Iranians who longed for regime change but never imagined it would arrive through foreign military intervention.
“An enemy is attacking us, is carpet bombing us, and yet we aren’t upset,” the second Tehran resident said. Many of the Iranians quoted in this article spoke to CNN under the condition of anonymity, citing concerns for their safety.
“Continuing with what we had before was much harder. Myself and my friends, we always (said) that of course this war and this attack is dangerous, there is uncertainty and danger – but that other situation was more difficult mental(ly) and more dangerous than this now,” the second Tehran resident said, referring to the regime’s decades of repression. Most recently, during January’s anti-government protests, the authorities killed thousands of protesters and plunged the entire country into international isolation with an internet blackout.
But not everyone wants regime change.
In a voice note sent by the second Tehran resident on Wednesday night, the sound of pro-regime demonstrators who had gathered for the first day of official mourning for Khamenei can be heard chanting in the background.
“This is life right now, they (regime supporters) come out every night, it’s not just a few people. These people have also made us crazy with this,” they said.
The long-standing divisions in Iran’s population have only been amplified by the chaos that the war has unleashed.
But across the political divide, the bombings are terrifying for many Iranians, with civilian casualities on the rise. Human rights groups have reported that more than 1,000 people have been killed by US-Israeli strikes since Saturday, including children.
In the southern Iranian city of Minab, at least 168 children and 14 teachers were killed in an attack on a girls’ elementary school on Saturday, according to state media, prompting UN human rights chief Volker Türk to demand a “prompt, impartial and thorough” investigation and warn that “indiscriminate attacks” are “serious violations” of international humanitarian law. The White House did not rule out on Wednesday that US military personnel had carried out the strike, but insisted that the US “does not target civilians.”
On Thursday, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that dozens of civilian centers, including residential areas, hospitals, schools, emergency centers and historical sites had been targeted by US-Israeli strikes.
For those who have suffered under the grip of the Khamenei regime, the destruction of some facilities – including detention centers and morality police compounds – brings a complicated sense of relief and vindication.
The Gisha Street complex in Tehran, home to the morality police building and one of the country’s most notorious detention centers, was hit in a strike on Sunday. Satellite images from March 3 obtained by CNN confirm the building was destroyed.
“Tens of thousands of people were detained and humiliated” in that building, a 23-year-old Iranian student and former detainee told CNN via the activist outlet IranWire.
The student said they hoped no innocent person was hurt in the bombing.
“But I’m crying because I’m so happy to know that it doesn’t exist. And I’m crying because I remember the way I was insulted and pushed around in that building,” they said.
Another former detainee, a musician, told CNN that their time at the center was “deeply traumatizing.” To see the building crumble brought out “conflicting emotions,” they said.
“I always thought about how I would get there and take my revenge if the government fell,” the musician said.
Amid the explosions, internet blackouts, and continued uncertainty, some Iranians are seeking a way out.
“People are happy police stations are being hit,” the 30-year-old Tehran resident said Friday, adding: “There’s still a police presence at toll booths and they check the trunk of your car if you want to leave Tehran.”
In the coastal city of Bushehr, one resident told CNN on Wednesday that the impact of a bomb targeting military infrastructure there was felt by people in small villages.
“The people I know have left,” they said, adding that villages with only a single road had also come under attack.
But unlike previous conflicts, many Iranians are also choosing to stay put – not only because of logistical barriers to getting out, but because some see leaving the country as giving in to psychological pressure, while others fear that if they leave, they might never be able to return.
In the capital, one woman described a bizarre combination of panic and the everyday in the city’s stores and markets, a signal, she suggested, that the regime is trying to present a face of normality amid the war – and despite years of catastrophic economic decline, fueled by sanctions, corruption and mismanagement.
“When it comes to food and goods, that first day I went to the store across the street. Everything is so expensive most people cannot afford to stock up. But then the following day we saw all the markets were well stocked and the prices had dropped, the bakeries are all open and baking… I have no idea what the future holds,” the woman said.
Meanwhile, the regime continues to severely limit all means of communication inside Iran, with the internet restricted since February 28 to around 1 % of normal traffic, according to independent watchdog organization NetBlocks, cutting off nearly 90 million people from independent news and social media.
In the south-central city of Shiraz, one resident described the chaos of living with almost no access to news or warning systems amid the bombardment.
“There is no internet, we cannot get any news – and if we want news it’s over the phone, which only connects every few minutes… No sirens to give people time to even take cover… we just know that something is coming at us in the sky, we don’t know if it’s ours or theirs,” they said.
On Thursday, a US-Israeli strike hit a playground and an emergency center in Shiraz, killing 20, including two Red Crescent Society emergency workers, the society said.
Back in Tehran, where heavy bombardment hit several locations including residential areas late Thursday night, residents have said they, too, are given no warnings about impending attacks.
“There are no warnings. I’ve been sheltering in a parking garage because my apartment building doesn’t have a basement. We’ve been stocking canned food, water supplies, and flashlights in case power is out,” the 30-year-old Tehran resident told CNN Friday.
As the war continues to escalate with no end in sight, Iranians are being forced to navigate a new reality.
When asked on Wednesday evening how they were faring, one Tehran resident simply replied: “I’m still alive.”
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Jomana Karadsheh, Florence Davey-Attlee and Christina Macfarlane contributed reporting.
