Living in Tehran, Under Bombing

On early morning of 2025/06/23, around 3.25 am, I woke up to a loud sound of explosion. This wasn’t the first time in my life I had woke up to such a sound, but I wasn’t sure about the source. Going to another room and opening a window, I witnessed fire and smoke rising from the top floors of a tower. It didn’t seem like a big fire, something one usually expects from bombs during a war, so I thought it may be an accident, a gas explosion or something like that.

But then I heard several more explosions from a far distance. It was clear now. This was war. Tehran was being bombed.

I expected the nuclear program and the support for terrorist groups to end up in a war, but not this soon. Some negotiations between Iran and USA were being held for weeks without any definite results, so I thought USA and Israel would at least wait until the failure of those negotiations is formally announced.

I turned on the TV, but there was no relevant news. I tried the Farsi news channels which broadcast from outside the country on satellite TV, and minutes later, they announced that Israel had attacked Iran, although there was still no detail. The “National” TV reported the attacks after that, still with no details.

I couldn’t sleep anymore. I just watched the news until morning. Some analysts on satellite TV said that high ranking generals have been killed in the attacks, and that means we should expect a relatively prolonged war, not something that lasts only a day, like previous Israeli attacks. Targeting the head of armed forces meant the Israelis had a bigger plan in mind, and wanted to sabotage command and control of their opposing force.

Just as I was preparing for work, I got a message which said my work place was closed that day. My work place wasn’t an exception. Most businesses were closed that day, as the attacks continued.

The satellite TV news continued, and informed us that the high command of armed forces of Iran was wiped out. Our own TV showed the places that were bombed, which had mostly taken light damages. The attacks were smart. Israelis knew were to target, exactly what floor and what room. That proved they had collaborators in Iran, in high places.

When the regime purged all the people who loved their country and knew how to do stuff years ago, and put self-sellers and uneducated ignorant people in charge, it should have anticipated such an outcome. When the security is focused on holding hijab on heads of women, when innumerous security cameras are installed in cities, and thousands of policemen and informants are mobilized to identify and arrest the women who don’t wear hijab, or online activists who write something against the regime, there is barely any force or will left to protect the country.

Someone who sells himself to such a regime, or is so ignorant and backwardthat thinks hiding women’s hair is so necessary that overrules their respect as human beings (if he believes in such a respect in the first place), can’t be willing or able to stand against a foreign aggressor. He simply sells himself for more money, or is too stupid to do anything about the foreign enemy.

Out of fear of shortage, first thing I did in the morning was taking my mother to shopping. Just before leaving, I listened to the news. It said Iran had sent drones to attack Israel. Of course, since the news reported it, it meant the Israeli military was well aware of the attack too. So much for a surprise attack, I thought to myself.

The marketplace was crowded. We weren’t the only ones who had come up with the idea of going shopping as soon as we can. People were especially interested in bottled water, since they feared the city may lose its water supply. The gas stations were crowded too. Long lines, sometimes several kilometers long, were formed there.

The next thing we did was going to the bank where our family had a safe deposit box. This wasn’t our unique idea either. Many people were there to take their belongings (mostly gold and foreign currency) home, since they didn’t trust the bank to safeguard their belongings during a crisis.

We also needed bread, but the bakeries were closed. The next thing we did was stopping at an ATM. There we found out the banks network was hacked. We had lost our access to one of our accounts, but lucky, we had several others, enough to meet our needs. Out of fear of more chaos, we tried taking some cash from the ATM, but it was empty. We found another bank on a relatively remote place. There we managed to take some cash, but only 1.000.000 rials (something about 1 dollar) with each card.

After more than 2 hours, we went home. The first thing I did was turning on the news, and it only made me laugh. The Iranian drones were still on the way!

I stayed at home with my family the entire day. At night, the bombing resumed. I kept hearing explosions, and saw anti-aircraft gun fire from my window. The guns fired in straight lines for relatively long times, as if Israeli air planes stayed stationary in the air for them. To me, it seemed like they were just pretending to fight, while they were actually helpless and blind on the ground. I couldn’t sleep at all from all that noise.

In the following days, bombing continued even during daytime. A few explosions were close to our house. When a fuel depot on south of Tehran was hit, I could see black smoke from afar, which looked somewhat like a dark cloud.

The state TV kept talking about a victory, constantly showing the scenes of Iranian missiles hitting Israel, and exaggerating about the small gatherings of government supporters. But I saw no support for the war among people. The state propaganda said nothing about the damages Iran was taking. There was no news about the places which were being hit at all. Later, at the end of the war, I found out that Israeli causalities were less than 0.5% of Iran, and almost all of them were civilians.

It was when the state television was hit that I became assured that Iran was defenseless. That day, satellite TVs said Israel had announced that it was going to attack a certain zone of Tehran, where the state television offices were located. The Israeli military had asked people to leave that zone. Our house was in that zone too, but we decided to stay. The attack came more than an hour and a half later. The Iranian air force and air defense had all that time to prepare. But there was no resistance at all. No air battle, no missile, no anti-aircraft gun fire, not even sirens. It was clear now. The sky was fully open for Israel.

The funny thing was: a woman covered in chador (black veil) was repeating the state propaganda with enthusiasm when the bombs fell. She was pretending to be very brave and self-assured, until the studio trembled with blast wave and some debris fell. She ran out without finishing her sentence. The whole scene was broadcasted live on TV.

People began moving out of Tehran. The once crowded city, with over 10 million residents, became almost a ghost town. The water pressure, which was very low before, rose dramatically, since there weren’t many people left in the city. The crowded streets and highways became almost deserted. The only crowded places were gas stations, were people waited in lines for hours to get rationed gasoline, just 15 liters per car. Luckily, I had filled my car just before the war.

We decided to stay in Tehran anyhow. We only left home for groceries. The bombing continued, especially at nights, preventing us from sleep.

Several days went by, until I decided to go to my work place. I went there, witnessing the empty streets on the way. There were armed people in plain clothes in streets, carrying assault rifles. They had established check points around the city. Just before my work place, they stopped my car and checked the trunk, probably to make sure I wasn’t carrying a drone or something like that. I wondered how I could tell security forces from bandits if someone in plain clothes pointed a rifle at me and asked me to leave the car.

The office was almost deserted too. There was nothing to do. I just organized my desk a little and watered the plants, until I got a call from my mother. She was scared, and said several places were hit around our house. I tried to go back, but this time the highways were closed by security forces. I could see smoke on the horizon, and had to go a long way to find an alternative way home.

There was a blackout back at home. A large part of Tehran had lost its electricity supply. We tried the radio. One channel was broadcasting Quran, one channel was broadcasting religious propaganda, telling people why make-up is harmful for women, another channel was broadcasting an interview with a retired volleyball coach, and so on. There was nothing useful to hear. The internet had been totally cut from the start of the war as well.

During the entire time of the war, no helpful information was offered by the state media. Israel constantly announced where it wanted to hit, and gave people time to get away, at least in some cases, but our media refused to give warnings. Not even once we heard a siren before the attacks. There was nothing but ridicules propaganda on TV and radio.

The blackout lasted for hours. Later, we found out that a security center, Evin prison and several other places were hit that day. One of our distant acquaintances worked in the ministry of energy (one of TAVANIR offices to be more exact), right across the street from the security center. She had decided to visit her workplace like me that day. When the bomb fell, the blast wave broke the windows, and she was hit hard with broken glass, and died as a result. I could have been in her place. Her name was Neda, one of the many innocent civilians who died on both sides of the conflict.

The attack on Evin prison was particularly criminal. The Israelis knew political prisoners were there, piled up along with ordinary prisoners in a small place, with their family members visiting regularly, but decided to hit there as well. The causalities were high, some prisoners and visitors were killed, and non-civilian causalities were mostly just conscripts and low-ranking guards. The wife of a political prisoner, a member of the writers association of Iran, who was just passing by, died in this criminal attack.

The security forces arrived at Evin before the ambulances and fire trucks. They put the prisoners in chains and moved them to remote prisons, which were more like medieval dungeons, where they were kept in small overcrowded spaces, without different prisoners being separated. The women prisoners were moved to Qarchak prison, a place which was originally designed for cows and chicken farming, and was notorious because of abuse of women prisoners.

USA joined the war that night and after it bombed the three main nuclear sites, an unofficial cease fire was announced.

The people on both sides paid a heavy price for a war they had no interest in, and this conflict is far from over.