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 below. There is just the dull hum of traffic tonight. But she understands how quickly that can alter. It is usually the dogs who discover the noise first and begin to bark intensely. The noise 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 strained nerves, of continuous waiting on the next blast and relentless fear of the state security device.


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


She lives alone but remains in constant communication with her buddies. "My pals and I message each other continuously asking where everyone is ... and even when there is no noise the silence itself is frightening. I am doing everything I can to survive and witness whatever lies ahead."


Like so many young Iranians, Baran saw her hopes of modification devastated in current months. Countless people were killed in a crackdown by routine forces in January after extensive demonstrations 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 during the protests," she states. "I fear tomorrow. I fear the person I will be tomorrow. Today, I endure somehow, but how will I make it through tomorrow? That is the genuine concern. Will I even endure tomorrow?"


Now repression is total. Open dissent is difficult as the state's watchers are everywhere. Footage we obtained programs program advocates driving through the city in the evening, flags flying from their cars and trucks - a message to any who might be lured to demonstration.


The main story is the only one enabled. State tv broadcasts video footage of presentations and funerals. Interviews with pro-regime officials and protestors use duplicated denunciations of America and Israel. In government propaganda the Iranian individuals are proclaimed as ready to suffer martyrdom.


Independent journalists still attempt to gather testament that uses a reputable alternative view, however they risk of arrest, abuse and potentially worse. As one of them told me: "In wartime conditions you actually do not understand what they are capable of doing."