Total Repression And Air Strikes Bring Unrelenting Dread For Iranians

Fergal KeaneSpecial reporter


A female bases on a roof listening to the noises of the city listed below. There is only the dull hum of traffic tonight. But she knows how easily that can change. It is normally the canines who notice the sound very first and begin to bark furiously. The noise of aircraft. Then the threatening percussion of explosions. 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 constant waiting for the next blast and relentless worry of the state security device.


Baran - not her real name - is a businesswoman in her thirties. She is now too afraid to go to work. "With the start of the drone attacks, no one attempts to go outside. If I open my door and march, it resembles betting with my life."


She lives alone however is in continuous communication with her buddies. "My friends and I message each other continuously asking where everybody is ... and even when there is no sound the silence itself is frightening. I am doing whatever I can to remain alive and witness whatever lies ahead."


Thus lots of young Iranians, Baran saw her hopes of modification ravaged in current months. Countless people were killed in a crackdown by program forces in January after widespread presentations requiring change.


"I can not even keep in mind how I used to live in the past without being reminded of the loved one I lost during the protests," she states. "I fear tomorrow. I fear the individual I will be tomorrow. Today, I make it through in some way, however how will I get through tomorrow? That is the real question. Will I even live through tomorrow?"


Now repression is total. Open dissent is difficult as the state's watchers are all over. Footage we obtained shows program fans driving through the city during the night, flags flying from their cars and trucks - a message to any who might be tempted to demonstration.


The main story is the just one allowed. State television broadcasts footage of demonstrations and funerals. Interviews with pro-regime officials and protestors provide repeated denunciations of and Israel. In government propaganda the Iranian individuals are extolled as going to suffer martyrdom.


Independent journalists still attempt to gather statement that offers a reputable alternative view, but they risk of arrest, torture and potentially even worse. As one of them told me: "In wartime conditions you actually do not know what they can doing."