Caught between Israel, the US abroad, and repression at home: Iranians speak to fyi.news

War has once again broken out in the Middle East and has already spread across the region. The war launched by the US and Israel against Iran on February 28 quickly turned into a regional conflict. In response to widespread bombing of cities and residential areas, Iran targeted the US bases in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, as well as targets in Israel.

For the people of Iran, however, this war began under particular circumstances. In June 2025, Iranians had already experienced 12 days of constant bombardment by Israel and the United States. This time, the war began while Iranians were still in shock and grief over the killings carried out by the country’s religious rulers against protesters who had taken to the streets in January to demonstrate against endless inflation.

Although the protests began over the sharp fall in the national currency’s value, they quickly spread to cities across the country. After 47 years of dictatorial rule, people demanded a change in power. The government’s response, as always, was repression and bullets.

According to official sources, 3,117 people were killed during the protests. Human rights organisations such as HRANA estimate the real number to be much higher, at least 6,500.

This unprecedented crackdown stunned society, and before people had recovered from the shock, bombs began falling on them. From the first hours, residential areas were targeted. A girls’ elementary school in the city of Minab was hit, resulting in the deaths of more than 160 students.

Iranians now speak about the hardship of being caught between two oppressors: a repressive regime at home and a foreign oppressive force.

The new year on the Gregorian Calendar, which began with nationwide demonstrations in Iran and continued with the attacks on the country by the United States and Israel, has felt like “two years” for Farhad. He says he can hardly digest everything that has happened since the beginning of January.

“When I look back, it feels like all this happened over two years: the protests, then the funerals of those killed in the demonstrations. It feels so far away that I can’t believe it was just two months ago. Mentally, I can’t take it anymore. I just want it all to end. I don’t even care what the outcome of this war is anymore. I just want it to stop.”

Farhad, who took part in the January protests in Tehran, says that afterwards, people in Iranian society seemed paralysed. Now that another war has begun, he uses the word “total numbness” to describe his own state.

“It’s like something has numbed me mentally and physically. I don’t know how to react to everything that’s happening. We’re caught between three murderers. The Islamic Republic is killing people at home, and Trump and Netanyahu are killing us by dropping bombs from outside. None of them cares about the people.”

Fatemeh was wounded in the leg by the police’s pellet guns during the January protests. She says her bitter experience of the crackdown led her, like some other Iranians, to hope that a foreign force might be able to save them from their domestic oppressors.

That view changed when the first bombs fell near her home in Niloufar Square in Tehran on Tuesday.

“I was lucky I wasn’t home. Otherwise, I don’t know what would have happened to me. All the windows in the apartment were shattered. The entrance to the building and the courtyard wall were completely destroyed. And it wasn’t just our building; every building in our alley looked the same. I just put my valuables and documents in the car and left Tehran.”

She now lives in her parents’ house in one of Tehran’s satellite cities. Fatemeh says her brief sense of relief at the killing of Iran’s leader, Ali Khamenei, quickly disappeared when she saw the reality of the war, which has targeted not only military and political figures but also ordinary people.

“Israel is hitting everything: the municipalities, the sports stadiums, the fishing piers, the schools, the hospitals. With this wave of bombings, even if we get rid of the Islamic Republic, there will be nothing left to live on.”

She also refers to a phrase many Iranians are repeating these days:

“Until a few months ago, we kept saying, ‘Don’t let us become like Venezuela,’ a country where sanctions and pressure from the United States meant people didn’t even have fuel. Now people are saying, ‘I wish we could become like Venezuela, at least the whole country wouldn’t be bombed like it is now.’”

Simin, a retired teacher, says the most painful thing she has ever seen was the images of the destroyed girls’ school in the city of Minab, followed by rows of graves dug for the students who were killed.

“I’ve seen a lot in my life, from the killing of my brother by the Shah’s regime before the 1979 revolution to the execution of my friends who were political activists in the years after the revolution. But seeing all these little girls, who had done nothing except sit in a classroom, is the most bitter thing I’ve ever seen. It will stay with me forever.”

Simin has remained in the capital despite the heavy bombing of Tehran because her 79-year-old husband cannot move after suffering a stroke. She also stayed in the city during the 12-day war in June 2025, but she says the scale of the bombing this time is much heavier than last year.

“Although nothing has been bombed near our house yet, every night we hear such terrible explosions that we can’t sleep until morning. My husband can’t speak, but he just looks at me in fear. I try to calm him and tell him it’s nothing, that the explosions are far outside the city.”

Like many other Iranians, she worries about the destruction of the country’s infrastructure and everything that was rebuilt after the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). That war lasted eight years, when Saddam Hussein, with the support of the West, attacked Iran’s oil-rich provinces shortly after the 1979 revolution.

“Despite all the systemic corruption in the establishment, we rebuilt this country after the war and kept it going again. Now, who will rebuild everything once more? With what money? With what hope?”

*Names have been changed to protect the interviewees’ safety.

*Mehrnoush Cheragh Abadi is a freelance journalist focusing on social and cultural topics in Iran.