Total Repression And Air Strikes Bring Unrelenting Dread For Iranians

Fergal KeaneSpecial correspondent


A female bases on a roof listening to the noises of the city listed below. There is just the dull hum of traffic tonight. But she knows how quickly that can alter. It is generally the pet dogs who observe the noise first and begin to . The sound of airplane. Then the threatening percussion of explosions. A ball of orange rising from an airstrike in a familiar area.


The BBC has gotten footage and interviews from Tehran which stimulate a city of stretched nerves, of constant waiting for the next blast and ruthless fear of the state security apparatus.


Baran - not her genuine name - is a businesswoman in her thirties. She is now too frightened to go to work. "With the start of the drone attacks, nobody attempts to go outside. If I open my door and step out, it resembles betting with my life."


She lives alone however remains in consistent communication with her pals. "My buddies and I message each other constantly asking where everyone is ... and even when there is no sound the silence itself is frightening. I am doing everything I can to stay alive and witness whatever lies ahead."


Thus numerous young Iranians, Baran saw her hopes of modification ravaged in recent months. Thousands of individuals were killed in a crackdown by program forces in January after widespread presentations demanding modification.


"I can not even keep in mind how I utilized 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 individual I will be tomorrow. Today, I make it through somehow, but how will I make it through tomorrow? That is the real question. Will I even endure tomorrow?"


Now repression is total. Open dissent is difficult as the state's watchers are everywhere. Footage we acquired programs routine advocates driving through the city at night, flags flying from their automobiles - a message to any who may be tempted to protest.


The main narrative is the only one allowed. State television broadcasts video of demonstrations and funeral services. Interviews with pro-regime authorities and protestors use duplicated denunciations of America and Israel. In government propaganda the Iranian individuals are extolled as willing to suffer martyrdom.


Independent journalists still try to collect testimony that offers a reputable alternative view, but they run the danger of arrest, abuse and potentially worse. As one of them informed me: "In wartime conditions you really do not know what they are capable of doing."