Afraid of Israel, angry at the regime: Iranians on 12 days of war
Before the war, something in Iran seemed to be shifting, says Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow at the European Council of Foreign Relations. Years of protests by the opposition had come at a heavy cost – civilians injured, political prisoners, deaths – but the authoritarian government had begun to make concessions.
Most visibly, there were reports that as many as one in three women were moving around Tehran with their heads uncovered. And then the Israeli strikes began, and Geranmayeh says 'all of that has now been turned upside down'.
Michael Safi hears how Iranians' relationship with the regime has changed in the last two weeks, as people have rallied around the flag, horrified by Israeli and US bombs, and at the same time expressed anger and shock at a government that seems to have been so little prepared for this war.
As a fragile ceasefire seems to hold, many are asking themselves the same question: what kind of Iran will come next?
With special thanks to the journalist Deepa Parent, who helped to contact people from across Iran.
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