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Warning: This article contains details which some readers may find distressing.
War reaches Tehran's doorstep
For Setareh, a young professional in Tehran, the conflict had always felt distant-until the day an explosion rocked her office building. The deafening blast and tremors sent her and her colleagues rushing to the rooftop, where smoke billowed into the sky. Unsure of the target, panic erupted. "People were screaming, running in every direction," she recalls. The chaos lasted for hours before her employer shuttered the business, leaving her unemployed.
Economic collapse deepens despair
Setareh's job loss plunged her into financial uncertainty. Even before the war, Iran's economy was crippled, with food prices surging 60% in a year. Now, basic necessities are unaffordable. "What's in our pockets doesn't match market prices," she says. Years of sanctions and mismanagement left Iranians without savings, and Setareh's network-once a safety net-can no longer help. "The people I thought might lend me money have nothing either."
The economic strain mirrors the 2025-2026 protests, which erupted over similar hardships. Setareh fears history will repeat: "If the war ends without change, the real conflict will begin-unemployment, no support, and a government that does nothing." Her demand is clear: regime change.
Healthcare system on the brink
Tina, a nurse outside Tehran, describes a healthcare system teetering on collapse. While medicine shortages are not yet widespread, she warns of dire consequences if infrastructure is targeted. "If imports stop, we'll face catastrophic problems," she says. The war's brutality haunts her, particularly the memory of a pregnant woman killed in an airstrike near a military site. "Neither she nor her baby survived. She was two months from delivery."
Tina's childhood was shaped by her mother's stories of the Iran-Iraq War, when missiles forced families into bomb shelters. Now, she lives the same nightmare. "I became a nurse to help, but I never imagined reliving my mother's trauma."
Repression silences dissent
Public opposition in Iran carries lethal risks. Behnam, a former political prisoner, shows X-rays of metal fragments still lodged in his torso from a protest shooting. "They ambushed us in an alley," he says. "After that, life loses its value."
His family's history mirrors the regime's cruelty: relatives tortured, fingernails pulled out, and futures destroyed for alleged political ties. "I won't heal until we're free," he says. "One day, we'll look back and laugh at this suffering. But that day feels distant."
Voices from across Iran
The BBC gathered accounts from six cities, spanning shopkeepers to public-sector workers. All described economic desperation and hope that the war might topple the government. Yet with U.S. threats of escalation and regime crackdowns intensifying, Iranians face an uncertain future.
"I cannot believe how quickly history repeats itself."
Tina, nurse
