Total Repression And Air Strikes Bring Unrelenting Dread For Iranians

Fergal KeaneSpecial reporter


A lady bases on a rooftop listening to the noises of the city listed below. There is only the dull hum of traffic tonight. But she knows how quickly that can change. It is normally the canines who discover the sound very first and begin to bark intensely. The sound of airplane. Then the ominous percussion of surges. A ball of orange increasing from an airstrike in a familiar area.


The BBC has obtained video footage and interviews from Tehran which evoke a city of strained nerves, of continuous waiting on the next blast and relentless worry of the state security apparatus.


Baran - not her real name - is a businesswoman in her thirties. She is now too scared to go to work. "With the start of the drone attacks, nobody dares to go outside. If I open my door and march, it is like gambling with my life."


She lives alone however is in continuous communication with her good friends. "My buddies and I message each other continuously asking where everyone is ... and even when there is no noise the silence itself is terrifying. I am doing everything I can to stay alive and witness whatever lies ahead."


Thus numerous young Iranians, Baran saw her hopes of change ravaged in current months. Thousands of were eliminated in a crackdown by program forces in January after prevalent demonstrations requiring modification.


"I can not even remember how I used to live in the past without being reminded of the enjoyed one I lost throughout the demonstrations," she says. "I fear tomorrow. I fear the person I will be tomorrow. Today, I make it through in some way, however how will I get through tomorrow? That is the genuine concern. Will I even live through tomorrow?"


Now repression is overall. Open dissent is impossible as the state's watchers are everywhere. Footage we acquired shows program supporters driving through the city at night, flags flying from their cars - a message to any who may be tempted to demonstration.


The official story is the only one permitted. State television broadcasts video of presentations and funeral services. Interviews with pro-regime authorities and protestors provide repeated denunciations of America and Israel. In government propaganda the Iranian people are proclaimed as happy to suffer martyrdom.


Independent reporters still attempt to collect testament that uses a reputable alternative view, but they run the danger of arrest, abuse and potentially worse. As one of them told me: "In wartime conditions you truly don't understand what they are capable of doing."