Cairo — Iranians were already suffering from a devastated economy and mass killings of protesters when the United States and Israel dropped the first bombs Tehran was struck A month ago.
Now they are struggling to get through the war With no end in sightThey are grappling with loss of livelihoods, damage to homes and the stress of explosions. Many wonder where this will lead them: to the destruction of their homeland, the chaotic fall of the theocracy, or its survival. Injured but more extreme.
“I think we went through every bad thing possible, from the terrible weather in January, the killings, the arrests, to the war,” said a 26-year-old designer in Tehran.
Daily explosions The near, the far and the unexpectedIt shakes and damages homes. Businesses are struggling. An unprecedented internet outage since January has largely isolated people from the outside world and made communication within Iran more difficult.
The trauma of war comes on top of the trauma that occurred in January, when hundreds of thousands demonstrated across Iran The biggest protests Against the theocracy for decades – only for security forces to open fire, killing thousands. Tens of thousands were arrested The arrests continued.
The AP spoke with 10 people across Iran, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for their safety.
The designer, who runs a factory that manufactures leather fashion products with her partner, said her business is about to close.
“When the economy gets bad, non-essential items are the first thing removed from the shopping cart,” she said. Most of its sales are online, and the internet outage has reduced “small sales to zero.”
Since the January protests, she has been forced to live on her meager savings, and the violence of the crackdown has upset her so much that she has been unable to return to work.
When the war started on February 28, she moved to her parents’ house. A few days later, an explosion from a nearby strike destroyed the apartment she had just left. Like most Iranians, she does not have insurance on her home, so she will have to pay for the repairs herself.
She only leaves her parents’ house to buy essentials.
The terrifying rhythm of air strikes shapes daily life in Tehran.
An engineer living in Tehran tries to find a pattern of strikes – are there certain times that are safer? Recent nights have witnessed explosions lighting up the sky. One evening, an explosion rocked his house while he was receiving guests. They climbed to the roof and tried in vain to find out where he had fallen. “We didn’t see any visible fire,” he said.
He believes that strikes have become less frequent now, or perhaps “our perception of them has changed,” as everyone has become accustomed to bombings.
He feels anxious when family members or friends go out into the streets, and struggles to sleep. He had a job offer before the war but doesn’t know if it still exists or not. He says many will soon struggle to pay rent and bills.
Government employees, who make up a large portion of the workforce, are still receiving their salaries. But private companies are struggling to pay employees as they close for days on end or reduce working hours.
Collapse of the Iranian currencyThe protests, largely caused by US and international sanctions over its nuclear programme, sparked protests late last year.
Many Iranians have fled to the north, which is relatively unscathed. One major city, Rasht, was crowded with Iranians who had fled from Tehran and elsewhere, straining local resources.
A doctor at a children’s hospital said that the number of patients had almost doubled. He added that medicines are running out, and patients are now being asked to buy some basic supplies, including antibiotics or intravenous fluids, from the market.
He said the internet outage is affecting his ability to access his patients’ histories and check the correct doses online. It also forced the doctor to put aside his personal effort to document the number of casualties from the January crackdown, because witnesses could not be reached and the database could not be accessed online.
He plays video games or watches TV to pass the time. In a week-long gig, he starred in five seasons of The Walking Dead, an American post-apocalyptic horror drama series.
All the while, Iranians were grappling with widely mixed feelings about war, theocracy, and the future.
The authorities continue to organize street marches in support of the government, with the aim of showing popular support. The fearsome paramilitary BasijThe police, in charge of internal security, intensified their patrols even as they were targeted by air strikes.
Al-Muhandis said that decades of misrule have been harsh on Iranians. But he said that this does not justify the American-Israeli attacks. He expressed anger at the deaths and damage to infrastructure and military capabilities.
He tries to channel this anger into a determination to rebuild. “I will be stronger after this war. I will be damaged, just like my country. But that’s all. This is life. We will make it better.”
At the beginning of the war, US President Donald Trump called on the Iranians to overthrow their leaders. now, He says he’s negotiating With senior Iranian officials who he claims are “begging” for a deal, without naming them. Iran denied holding such talks.
Some Iranians fear that the war will leave behind a wounded but more repressive Islamic Republic.
A woman in her forties said she feared negotiations more than war. “This is what our situation has become – we are willing to endure war in the hope of being freed from it,” she said.
The doctor in Rasht said he considered war “the last remaining option” to get rid of the ruling clerics. But he fears the way the United States and Israel are running things. He said that if the United States reached an agreement now, it would only entrench the theocracy.
“We now have the Islamic Republic on steroids,” he said. He added: “We fear that they will take revenge on the people, whom they openly consider the enemy from within.”
In southwest Iran, a lawyer who represented detainees and women’s rights advocates — and was imprisoned — spoke to the AP earlier in the war, saying she dreamed of the day when the Islamic Republic would collapse. She spoke about the power of teamwork and self-determination.
A month after the bombings, she seemed more introspective, taciturn and exhausted by the isolation and uncertainty.
She said: “There is no glimmer of hope, no dreams, and no joy.” “Anxiety about the future has taken over.”
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El-Deeb reported from Beirut.