‘People are desperate and exhausted’ – Iranians talk to the BBCpublished at 21:42 GMT
Despite the tightened restrictions on internet use in Iran that we reported on earlier, our colleagues at BBC Persian have been able to receive some text messages from inside Iran.
“Iran’s internet is really slow now”, says a man in his 20s in Tehran. “We’re really worried about getting identified. If they do, I fear that
we might be executed.”
Another man in Karaj, 30s, says the internet situation is “terrible”. “The person who I bought my VPN from has increased their prices
from yesterday to around 1.2 million for 1gb of internet!” he added.
In Iran at the moment, an average salary is around 30 million Iranian Rial.
“I went to the hairdresser today, although I was really worried about the situation outside,” says a woman in her 20s in Tehran. “It was really busy. I feel like some people are still hopeful. I heard a loud explosion when I was there, but people are used to it now.”
A man based in Isfahan said the city was “hit very badly”. Yesterday, there were “heavy bombardments” in Isfahan, he said, and this morning, there were strikes in an area near the Air Force neighbourhood.
He said: “People are willing to accept the end of this in any way. People
are hardly going out into the city to shop, and the dominant mood is closer to
mourning than to a holiday.
“My parents are in the north, at the Caspian sea and
say there are some small local markets open and a kind of half-alive atmosphere
there. People are desperate and exhausted.”
