When I wanted to write this report for you, I was embarrassed to write the title. Escape was something I didn’t want to mention here, but the truth is that we and I have escaped. Without having any connection to the Islamic Republic or Israel, we fled Tehran and are trying to survive under airstrikes.
When I was in Tehran, the only thing that seemed important in the last moments was escaping. The anger and energy accumulated in me were spent on preparing the report and preparing for escape, as if this were the most important and necessary action in the world and were enough for us.
But the first night we reached a safe haven, it wasn’t enough.I was worried about everything that was left in Tehran. The news on the official Islamic Republic TV made me angry. They pretended that nothing bad had happened and had no solution to the problems. The only thing that mattered to them was and is their own survival in power.
As I reported earlier, there are no official government shelters available in Tehran or in Iran in general. They have cut off the internet, and by the time you read this report, it will either be long after the attacks have ended, or you have left Iran, or you will never read this report.
The internet and satellite networks were the only way for the people of Tehran and Iran to be informed about the time and type of widespread attacks, but the internet has been cut off and the satellites have been jammed. They (the Islamic Republic) have used the people as their shield, and those affiliated with the regime are taking refuge among the people.
They are collecting satellite dishes on rooftops or searching for satellite internet devices, trying to control communications and the dissemination of news at every level. Instead, there is not the slightest help for the war-torn people. The Islamic Republic is concealing the fact that an all-out and dangerous war has taken place, and the Iranian people are trapped in an absolutely defenseless and endangered situation.
On the other side
Years ago, in Iran, in parallel with the national army, an economic and military institution called the Revolutionary Guard was established, whose duty is to ensure the security of the government and state of the Islamic Republic. The Revolutionary Guard has comprehensive influence and dominance over industries, military and economic affairs throughout Iran.
This institution is also always committed to protecting the government and state of the Islamic Republic. The IRGC is considered one of the main actors in the suppression and torture of Iranian protesters. The IRGC used to shoot and continue to shoot us protesters of the Islamic Republic regime with firearms in the streets during the protests, and in secret torture centers, they rape and murder people. Such a force has taken control of the Iran-Israel war today, and Khamenei has officially transferred a significant part of his authority to this institution. The Iranian National Army is under the influence and absolute control of the IRGC, and this institution, after America and Israel, has become the owner of the lives and livelihoods of us, the people of Iran.
Before the internet shutdown, some people who were desperate for any kind of help from these people were posting terror alerts in Persian on the internet asking Israel and the Iranian royalist right-wingers to at least not attack residential areas in Iran.
But who really is this audience, a segment of frustrated Iranians?
After the Islamic Republic came to power in Iran, a huge number of Iranians were forced to flee Iran. They had various political leanings, and even simpler than that, they were simply singers or owners of a liquor store or sellers of clothes and films. The Islamic Republic had problems with monarchists and rightists and leftists and anarchists and musicians and dancers, secularists and Islamists who had different readings of Islam. So people fled Iran to save their lives, to avoid imprisonment, or to maintain the possibility of working and being active.
These Iranian immigrants created large communities of Iranians in Europe and America. Some of these individuals and communities were affiliated with the previous government and government in Iran, namely the Pahlavis, and were considered owners of large capital that they had taken out of Iran. These individuals propagated their ideas by establishing television networks abroad. Over time, some of these Iranian immigrants and communities abroad encountered support from Western governments, especially the United States. This support for television networks opposed to the Islamic Republic was part of the project of guiding public thought and culture by England and America, and then other Western societies, and it still is. They were and are securing their own interests.
This issue went to the point where television networks such as Voice of America and media outlets such as Israel in Persian, along with Man and You TV and Iran International, gained a position of equal weight and scope with Iranian national television and official Persian-language media. Many Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic have collaborated with these movements, using the excuse that “we need money and resources to fight the Islamic Republic.” This media complex created a media movement that is known as mainstream media in the Persian-speaking community. At the forefront of the political orientations of this media complex are common beliefs, which include: secularism and the fight against the religious government and state, and especially Islamists; the celebration of the previous government and the monarchy in Iran; the celebration of ancient Iran and the strengthening of nationalist emotions and thoughts; support for Israel and the preparation of political grounds for the return to power of the son of the former king of Iran, nicknamed and titled Prince Reza Pahlavi.
Their dominant method, like most opposition groups, was and is to call for maximum public protest. But in doing so, they did not apply any form of consideration. For them, citizens and protesters were just numbers whose number increased, increasing the likelihood of the Islamic Republic falling. They absolutely did not take the costs of these protests seriously. And ultimately, there was no real support for the revolutionaries, protesters, and ordinary people from these media outlets and the mainstream opposition, after being harmed by the Islamic Republic.
Today, and before the internet was cut off, a part of the Iranian people who saw and see their political agency and effectiveness lost, in order to survive and survive, begged and pleaded with these media outlets to limit the attacks. The Israeli government also made a promise to the Iranian people in this regard; they promised that attacks would not be carried out against ordinary people.
We will not attack civilian targets and will issue an evacuation warning if there is a plan to attack a crowded area.
This is what the Israeli Minister of War and Prime Minister said.
But in reality, it was impossible to attack all military targets in a situation where the Islamic Republic was using the people as shields.
In this regard, I will mention to you a report that I personally witnessed. A middle-aged man had been admitted to the hospital with his eyes protruding from their sockets. He was working in a supermarket next to a Basij center (a base for the IRGC and supporters of the Islamic Republic) and a piece of a destroyed drone had hit the back of his head. As a result of the impact, part of his head was crushed and one of his eyes had fallen out.
On the first night, news agencies affiliated with the IRGC approached him and, while he was in critical condition, asked him to give an interview against Israel. The man, in pain and fear, refused this request and only sought treatment. In order to exploit his pain in their name and use him for propaganda, the interrogators-journalists told him that he would not be allowed to receive treatment until he gave an interview in favor of the Islamic Republic.
And he was forced to first be interviewed and then managed to receive treatment. This report clearly shows that neither the Islamic Republic nor the Israeli regime has stood in a position of goodwill towards the Iranian people, and the claim that civilians were not harmed is a complete lie.
How I escaped, what I saw, and how I returned.
I was reporting in Tehran and writing for you. The day Israel attacked the TV building, I was on the highway next to it, down in the hills, reporting. There was gunfire overhead, and I was in an apocalyptic scene. At the same time, Israel issued an evacuation warning to Tehran residents. People in District 3, where I was, and people in District 18, were to leave the area immediately. This was not possible due to the heavy traffic.
In addition, the Islamic Republic agents were everywhere and at checkpoints, which made the exit slower. I needed to file a report and erase my phone data immediately. Because anyone who takes pictures of the attacks in Iran, or can get information about them from abroad, will be arrested and tried on charges of spying for Israel, and there is a high chance that he will even be executed.
But the internet was down and I could neither report my safety nor the news to my comrades and colleagues outside Iran. I postponed sending the report and instead, with great difficulty and relatively quickly, we left the attacked area.
Tehran was not safe, so I decided to leave Tehran with the backpack I had prepared in advance. After much effort, I drove to the road, and west, and then north of Iran. The roads were almost blocked and heavy with cars and traffic. The weather was hot and there was no sound in the car except for the sound of the Islamic Republic Radio broadcasting threatening songs against Israel in Arabic.
After hours, we arrived at a roadside rest area and gas station. I got some water and we waited in line at the gas station for hours again to get our rationed gasoline.
Around midnight, I looked around. The internet was still down, and war-torn travelers were bustling around every corner; some were playing volleyball in the slightly cooler air, and many were sitting on the floor eating, and children were playing.
I wasn’t in a refugee camp, but I could imagine that a disorganized crowd, searching for life, would probably be a recurring image. Now we all had a new identity. We were war-torn.
Along the way, mineral water bottles were rationed, and you had to stand in long lines to use the restrooms. Statistics showed that within a few days, about six million people had entered Mazandaran and four million people entered Gilan, two relatively safe northern provinces of Iran. We were traveling with a large portion of this population.
The northern cities were also overpopulated and in some cases, food supplies were scarce. I could clearly see that we had put the burden of our survival on the shoulders of the indigenous people of the northern regions, and this could eventually lead to conflicts.
Of course, there was aid and popular organization going on, but all of this was not enough to forcibly relocate ten million people.
The next morning we arrived at one of these safe zones. The internet connection had also improved a bit. I sent the report and in return, I got a few messages from my other comrades: they had been arrested! For spying for Israel.
We are not considered supporters of Zionist ideas and have publicly stated this position many times. So what caused these arrests?
That one of those arrested was an asylum seeker in Iran who had fled the Taliban and had a few non-Islamic books with him. The other was one of my university classmates and we had been arrested together once before at the university during the Women, Life, Freedom protests.
According to the Islamic Republic, anyone who had the courage to stay and fight for a position different from theirs, and who said anything different or protested, was and is an Israeli spy. The Islamic Republic is taking advantage of the war situation to further suppress dissent. They have silenced our voices to present their own narrative to the world.
Every morning, at least two executions involving political prisoners take place in Iranian prisons, and the Islamic Republic has announced that nearly eighty spies have been arrested from each of Iran’s provinces, a number that is clearly fictional.
These people are often social and political activists and opponents of the Islamic Republic, and most of them are civilians. Just like me and us.
I may be killed by the Islamic Republic before Israel for sending these reports and the connections I have.
Yesterday, one of my friends was kidnapped and there is no news about him. He was not a Zionist and only had beliefs that were contrary to and different from the Islamic Republic. He was considered a child rights activist and, by the way, he wrote about children’s rights in Gaza and held meetings.
The Islamic Republic regime and Khamenei, who have recently renamed themselves Iran , arrest, torture, and ultimately kill critics inside Iran in the name of defending Iran — which is essentially simply defending their survival and continued repression.
My people, in reality on the ground, are being threatened and killed by the Islamic Republic, and from the sky, Israel is attacking their homes.
In Europe and America, some critics of Western world policies are defending the criminal regime of the Islamic Republic in the name of defending peace and confronting war. There is no need to defend the Islamic Republic and its narrative to condemn Israel’s crimes and American policies, just as no one would purge the Nazis or the former Soviet regime to condemn the warmongering during World War II.
Perhaps telling the full story of what is happening in Iran is the only possible help to the people imprisoned in this geography.
In Iran, the internet has been cut off, and apart from a few IRGC bases and a handful of citizens, no one has access to the internet. Telephone lines for calling Iran from abroad have also been blocked for the general public.
Checkpoints have been set up around cities and neighborhoods, ostensibly to confront the Israeli army, but in practice, they harass, search, and arrest ordinary Iranian citizens more than they do Israelis.
The United States had issued a warning and order to evacuate Tehran.
In Tehran, defenses are working every night and explosions can be heard.
I decided to return to the almost depopulated city of Tehran. At the beginning of this report, I wrote that I hated running away.
Besides running away, I also hate being poor.
I imagine we are all trapped in a big prison.
And I have a duty to do more than run away and be miserable.
The communications of the anarchist movement in Iran have been cut off and blocked in a comprehensive manner, and we are in widespread danger. Despite this, it was important for me to return to Tehran and assess the situation, and to be able to communicate with outside Iran in some way and to be informed of my comrades in various places, and if necessary, to fight alongside each other.
So I came to Tehran. The city I had left was much busier than the one I saw upon my return.
Tehran has been almost emptied of its population and has taken on a completely military appearance.
Banks are open until 11 a.m. and large stores are open until noon at the latest. Food in stores is either spoiled or scarce.
And menstrual pads or canned goods are offered in rations.
But more striking than all of this are the numerous checkpoints that have been established throughout the city.
When I was leaving Tehran a few days ago, Iranians with positions close to the government were present at these stops, inspecting cars.
But when I returned, I saw a number of Islamic Republic proxy forces (probably Iraqi Arabs and Shiite Islamists) at the checkpoints instead of Iranian forces, mostly called Basij.
Thus, the only foreign forces that have attacked my house are not Israel and America, but some of the Islamist terrorist groups from the region have also come to Tehran and mobilized here.
These people are specifically present in my city and home to support and defend the continuation of the Islamic Republic as a criminal regime.
And it seems they have forgotten that this land also has owners and residents , and they can turn Iran into an arena for land conflicts.
I am in Tehran now and the attacks continue here.
A number of comrades have been arrested and probably like all detainees who are arrested in bulk, we will be accused of espionage. (Although we are not only against all the governments of the world and the wars of the world, but also against the government of Israel and the government of the Islamic Republic and all their wars (in our opinion, governments are absolute evil and we are against all the governments of the world), while people are called spies and accused of spying for Israel, which means they have cooperated with one of the governments in terms of intelligence and operations, while we are against all the existing governments of the world and consider governments to be criminals)
Internet piece
And our situation is so dangerous that it may be the last time I communicate with you, and the next time I will be imprisoned or executed.
I will continue to prepare field reports.
One of my colleagues has been arrested on charges of spying for Israel (while this friend of mine is against war, against Israeli attacks, and against any government). But unfortunately, he may be at risk of execution and was originally kidnapped by security agencies.
source: Iran: A detailed report on a war and millions fleeing | anarchistnews.org