Total Repression And Air Strikes Bring Unrelenting Dread For Iranians

Fergal KeaneSpecial correspondent


A woman bases on a rooftop listening to the noises of the city below. There is only the dull hum of traffic tonight. But she knows how quickly that can alter. It is normally the canines who see the sound very first and begin to bark furiously. The noise of aircraft. Then the ominous percussion of explosions. A ball of orange increasing from an airstrike in a familiar area.


The BBC has acquired video and interviews from Tehran which evoke a city of stretched nerves, of the next blast and unrelenting fear of the state security device.


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 attempts to go outside. If I open my door and march, it is like gambling with my life."


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


Thus numerous young Iranians, Baran saw her hopes of change devastated in recent months. Thousands of people were eliminated in a crackdown by regime forces in January after extensive presentations requiring change.


"I can not even remember how I used to live in the past without being reminded of the liked one I lost during the protests," she states. "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 real question. Will I even live through tomorrow?"


Now repression is total. Open dissent is difficult as the state's watchers are everywhere. Footage we obtained programs program fans driving through the city during the night, flags flying from their vehicles - a message to any who may be tempted to protest.


The main story is the only one permitted. State television broadcasts video footage of presentations and funeral services. Interviews with pro-regime officials and protestors offer repeated denunciations of America and Israel. In government propaganda the Iranian individuals are extolled as willing to suffer martyrdom.


Independent reporters still try to collect testament that provides a trustworthy alternative view, but they run the threat of arrest, torture and potentially worse. As one of them informed me: "In wartime conditions you actually don't understand what they can doing."