Hey, is my home still standing?
A deeply personal view into the difficulties of finding out basic facts in wartime Iran, where information escapes only through spurts of data that manage to bypass the internet blackouts.
At the bottom of this page: Latest news at this hour.
Khamenei’s successor elected… IDF warns it will target whoever emerges… civilian death estimate in Iran surpasses 1,200… Oslo explosions at U.S. embassy possibly linked to terrorism… Iranian drone damaged a Bahrain desalination plant.
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OUR LEAD STORY:
Setare’s phone rang: it was a video call from her friend in Shahsavar, a city in northern Iran, that lasted all but one minute.
But during that minute, Setare could hear explosions through the phone.
Her friend sounded terrified.
Usually when there is danger in Tehran, everyone goes to the mountains up north, Setare said.
“But even there, I could hear the bombs through the phone.”
Then, the connection dropped.
Just hours after the first U.S.-Israeli strikes, Iran fell into an internet shutdown with traffic down to 1 percent of typical levels, according to NetBlocks, a company that maps internet freedom. It is the second time this year that Iranian authorities have cut internet access nationwide—the first came during protests that erupted in January.
Setare was still living in central Tehran, not far from the compound of Iran’s recently-killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a key target of the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on the regime.
The BBC has verified at least 100 U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and 49 strikes on Tehran. While initially the U.S. strikes appeared to only target military and government infrastructure, civilian buildings have been struck.
Now the three places Setare grew up—northern Iran, Qom and Tehran—are under attack. From Turkey, where she arrived just 12 days before the war broke out, she is trying to patch it all together through brief phone calls and scattered text exchanges.
“Iranians have complicated feelings right now,” said Setare. “You can’t put a name on it. They are happy and scared at the same time.” She is referring to the relief of a deteriorating autocratic regime that is paired with the devastating impacts of war on her soil.
Setare’s story is a microcosm of the millions of Iranians now outside the country and the ordeal of trying to follow the Iran War through intermittent bursts of information that sneak out past the virtual barricades.
Setare now has a list of places she loves that are now reduced to rubble: the 24-hour cafe in her neighborhood.
Ferdowsi Square, which was near the theaters she loved.
Azadi Stadium, Tehran’s massive football arena.
“Everywhere I loved is gone,” she said.
Setare is able to connect with her family through an Iranian messaging app called Bale, which is backed by the state. But only during select moments of connection can she pick up details—a bomb shook her mother’s house on day seven of the war; her sister’s 1-year-old child cries non-stop from loud sounds of explosions.
VPNs allow her to connect to those who can afford them. One of the other few ways that Iranians can still have internet access is through ‘white SIM cards'—but there are only about 50,000 of these in Iran. Even these workarounds are blocked from time to time.
Setare, 34, grew up in the northern region of Iran, where she remembers a relaxed life full of laughter.
When she was about 10, she moved to Qom, one of Iran’s most religious cities due to its holy significance in Shia Islam. It is also the site of Israel’s strike on the Assembly of Experts that disrupted a meeting about the supreme leader succession plan.
In Qom, Setare became introverted following events like an arrest at age 13 that left her detained for three days. She says that sparked her involvement in acting and her move to Tehran. Ultimately, she was tired of the emotional and artistic suppression she faced growing up.
She built a career in Tehran’s film and theater scene, often navigating censorship that shut down performances the state deemed controversial. Her recent film Without Permission, about an exiled Iranian filmmaker who is denied permission to make his film, is up for multiple awards.
After being involved in movies and live theater that would be shut down before the project was complete, she grew exhausted and wrote a play about eight different characters from different walks of Iranian life. She played all eight. After years of it getting cancelled in various theaters, she decided she would perform it anywhere but Iran, flying to Dubai or Turkey to perform and returning home.
Setare left Iran for Turkey on February 16 after growing suspicious that a neighbor was connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. Twelve days later, the first strikes hit her neighborhood.
Satere’s house is the most important thing to her. It stands in the old part of Tehran, in a large historic building that she says once formed part of the French embassy there.
For the first few days of the war, she knew her house was intact from friends in Tehran who had been checking on it for her.
But she worries about more than a direct missile strike. Impact from missile hits can shatter nearby windows. If her windows break, she said, she fears thieves could enter and take her belongings.
A friend was inside her house when a nearby strike shook the area. It blasted her friend’s door open, knocking her to the ground. Setare said her friend was “shell-shocked.”
She remembers her home as a refuge, a place where her artistic side was able to take shape away from authoritarian censors.
She danced in front of three full-length mirrors, able to express freely the parts of her artistic identity that were suppressed by laws and customs in Iran. When she moved to Tehran, she built a career in film and performance, though the arts were tightly regulated.
It was a big house too, so it served as a gathering spot for her friends, “like a cafe,” she said. “We would sit around ‘Korsi,’ a table with a mattress on top that had a heating device underneath. It’s a tradition in Iran with my friends and spend time together,” she said.
The other day, Setare saw a photo of a destroyed hostel that looked like her house—the same Qajar period architecture—and got worried again that her house was destroyed.
During her conversation with Iran War Dispatches, her phone kept lighting up.
A friend had relocated to a mountainous city in northern Iran, where many have sought refuge amidst strikes on their hometowns. Even there, the friend said, she wasn’t safe.
“We could feel the tremors and could hear the sound,” the friend wrote. “Wherever I go, they bomb it.”
Setare has no time to put her phone down and respond later, as connection is unpredictable and frail.
“I wish you were with me,” Setare wrote.
“I wish :(“ the friend responded.
Translation:
Yes, they bombed northern Iran last night. We heard the explosions. They bombed the IRGC center. They reached here too.
Oh
I wish you were with me🥹
I wish 😭
They bombed Azadi stadium too
THE LATEST NEWS AT THIS HOUR:
By Oksana Stepura and Tim Mak
Good morning to readers; Iran wakes up to another day of war.
EXPLOSION AT U.S. EMBASSY OSLO POSSIBLY LINKED TO TERRORISM: An explosion occurred at the U.S. embassy in Norway early Sunday morning. Local police are investigating the incident, which officials are calling a “targeted attack.” No arrests have been made, and the specific cause of the blast remains unclear.
INITIAL STRIKES KILLED MEN WHO WANTED TO NEGOTIATE WITH: The strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also killed a separate group of Iranian officials elsewhere in the compound. The problem? The White House had identified them as officials more amenable to negotiate with them to bring the war to a quick conclusion, The New York Times reported.
KHAMENEI’S SUCCESSOR ELECTED: Iran’s Assembly of Experts has reportedly elected a successor to Ali Khamenei, but the new supreme leader’s name has not been announced. The head of the secretariat of the Assembly of Experts will be responsible for announcing the successor’s name.
… THE IDF THREATENS WHOEVER WILL EMERGE: The IDF warned it would target the successor to Ali Khamenei and anyone involved in selecting the next leader of Iran. It said “the long arm of the State of Israel will continue to pursue the successor and anyone who tries to appoint him,” according to a Twitter post.
CIVILIAN DEATH ESTIMATE IN IRAN SURPASSES 1,200: More than 1,200 civilians have been killed in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. an American-based NGO focused on Iranian matters.
The reported toll includes nearly 200 children and already exceeds casualties from last summer’s 12-day war. The strikes have damaged civilian sites such as a girl’s school, a clinic, a desalination plant, and a residential home.
DRONE DAMAGES BAHRAIN DESALINATION PLANT: Bahrain said an Iranian drone damaged this key piece of infrastructure. The incident occurred after Tehran accused the U.S. of attacking a desalination facility on Qeshm Island. Desalination plants are vital in the Gulf, which countries rely heavily on for drinking water.
Stay safe out there!
Best,
Jacqueline
No other outlet I know does this kind of war reporting. Thank you.
These are humans with families, friends and lives. Thank you for sharing Satere’s story.