Fear and hope: how some in Iran are feeling about the war

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This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is the current podcast.

The United States and Israel continue to trade attacks today with Iran.

The conflict which began last week has quickly expanded across many countries in the

Middle East. More than a thousand Iranians have died from hostilities.

The United Nations says hundreds of thousands more in that region have been displaced.

Overnight, most about Hamini, the son of Ayatollah Ali Hamini who was killed last week

was named as Iran's new supreme leader. As this war has spread, the CBC has heard from many

Iranians in the diaspora, but ongoing internet blackouts and electricity outages

have made hearing from those on the ground dangerous and in some cases almost impossible.

Even so, that has not stopped some Iranians from getting their message out.

The CBC has put together a special team that has been working to compile the range of what

Iranians have to say. That team includes CBC senior producer Farzad Fatil Azadeh and he

is with us in our Toronto studio. Farzad, good morning. Good morning, Matt.

You have been working as I say to try to hear from people inside Iran during this war.

It's difficult because of the internet blackouts because of the fact that it's a war zone as well.

What has that been like? How have you been connecting with them?

It's sure it's been extremely difficult, but not impossible.

There are a small number of Iranians who have access to very small number of Iranians,

access to Starlink. Elon Musk has made the service free to use in Iran, but you still need hardware.

That hardware is available but very, very expensive. There are also filter breakers that people

are buying to be able to use the internet anonymously, and there are small pockets of connectivity that

people use to. We're seeing a lot of social media posts where people saying I just noticed I had

internet, so here's what I'm seeing, here's what I'm feeling. You're doing this work as a journalist,

but this is also personal because you have family that's there. Yes, I do. What have you heard from them?

I, not much, not much. I last spoke to my father on December 27th on his birthday.

I haven't been able to get in touch with him since we heard from my sister. She called my other

sister here in Canada from Tehran, telling her that she was going to stay in Tehran. This was on the

first day of the war, February 28th, but since then nothing. That's really hard. For the people you

have spoken with, what are you hearing? I need to back up and begin in early January because

it's really important and it's all connected. That's when the internet blackout was first put

in place. Before massive wave of protests on January 8th and 9th, people were encouraged to

come out on the streets by the last Shah of Iran's son, Rizad Pahlavi, and also emboldened by

social media posts by Donald Trump saying, encouraging them to come out. He's saying that

he had their backs and the United States was, quote, locked and loaded. Now, the regime ended up

killing tens of thousands of people during that 48 hours. Some estimates suggest more than 30,000,

some are much higher official numbers or much lower. Back then, I spoke to a lot of people

all saying the same thing, the ones that I spoke with, and that included the grandmother and

her 70s in Tehran. She told me back then that every day after the massacres, they were waking up

and saying, why haven't they attacked us yet. She told me that she never thought in her lifetime

that it would come a day where she would wish another country would attack her homeland.

Now, again, like this was echoed by others we were hearing from. When the war started on February 28th,

we saw celebrations, quiet celebrations inside Iran, especially after news broke that

harmony was that we saw videos of people on the rooftops drinking shots of, I don't know what,

you know, I'll call this illegal, but it's available on the black market, celebrating the strikes,

people grilling kebabs, smoking hook dancing, people were telling us that they were staying in Tehran,

which is in stark contrast to the last Israeli U.S. strikes on Tehran last June, what they

called a 12-day war, where a lot of people left the capital, but people were telling us that

they were staying put. They weren't going anywhere. They were telling us that shops were open,

restaurants were open. There were no shortages. At that time, they were telling us that there was gas,

so majority of people that we were hearing from were telling us that they were viewing

United States and Israel as their liberators. Here's a man in his 50s that we spoke with,

and he's pretty reflective of what the kinds of messages we were getting. When they strike,

the people feel a sense of joy. Of course, there are a small number who are afraid, for example,

my wife has some anxiety, or there are others among family and friends, but on the day they said

they hit Khameini, everyone was hugging each other. Let me put it this way, the people are just

loving Trump and Netanyahu. I must let you know that there are definitely those who don't share

that view, and I'm not talking about regime supporters. These are people against the regime

who are warning, cautioning that Israel and the United States don't have the best interests of

Iranians in mind, but their numbers, at least on social media, are smaller, and they're not

getting in touch with us. Speaking out is a very dangerous offense in Iran, so it makes sense that

choosing to keep their opinions to themselves. What's at the heart of that optimism? Do you think

that you have been picking up on social media and beyond? Well, people, it's desperation. People

have been, they've viewed themselves as hostages of this regime for the past 47 years, and they're

looking at this as a liberation operation. And so what does that optimism say to you about

and again, there are very mixed feelings about this, and it's not one voice that's speaking for

all the people. But what does that say to you about the change that some Iranians want to see

politically? What they're looking for after this? Let me just tell you quickly that the situation

in Tehran changed quite a bit over the weekend after they hit oil refineries and oil depots. We

see these images of flames and smoke and raining bits of oil that have been falling from the sky.

Exactly, and people are more terrified now. There are shortages, gas shortages now, and you know,

they're still saying everything is well stocked, but who knows how long this will last if there's

if there are fuel shortages. Regarding the political change that people want to see in Iran,

we are hearing they would like a secular democracy. A lot of people are expressing support for

shots on Rizal Palavita. It mentioned even suggesting that they would like to see him back on

the throne, but you know, we've heard from Trump lately that he is supporting a model similar to

what he did in Venezuela, installing someone from within the sense we are getting is that just not

going to fight with our Iranians. They don't want to have anything to do with the regime.

Just finally, there are people, as you mentioned, who support the regime? Have you heard anything from

them? They are not getting in touch with us. They are they are spending their messages on social

media. They're mourning the loss of the senior harmony, and now they are celebrating that his son

is the new leader. It's a day they're calling him an extension of his father, but they are not

getting in touch with us. I wish the best for your family there, but this is also important as I

say it's so difficult to hear from people on the ground because of all of the things that you

have laid out the internet blackout and the fact that the country is in turmoil right now.

Thank you for bringing us what you have heard, and we will talk again as this continues.

Thank you for having me, Matt. Farzad Fatal Azate is a senior producer with CBC News. He was with me

in our Toronto studio. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.