Iranians struggle to flee Tehran amid Israeli strikes, bumper-to-bumper traffic and fuel shortages

Middle East Eye

5 hours ago

On Saturday, the horrors of of war resurfaced in Mohammad's mind.
He watched from the side walk as his nine-year-old daughter, sitting in a car with his wife, three-year-old son, and his wife's family, turned her head and peered out of the window to say goodbye.
In that moment, he was taken back 37-years to the Iran-Iraq war, to the day he had been riding in a car with his mother and sister, fleeing missile strikes on the capital, Tehran.
Today, Iran is once again under heavy bombardment with Israeli air strikes targeting residential areas, civilian buildings, hospitals, media offices, and military sites.
The capital, he says, now bears a resemblance to how it looked in 1987, during the final year of the eight-year war that Iraq began with the backing of the US and other western powers.
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"The fear in my daughter's eyes brought back the memory of leaving my father behind, not knowing if we'd ever see him again," Mohammad, who still remains in Tehran, told Middle East Eye.
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"My father didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. A traffic officer told our driver to move the car, and I remember seeing my father running along the side walk, waving at us through the window," he recalled that day.
Mohammad's wife and children left Tehran on Saturday after an Israeli air strike hit the nearby Mehrabad airport. They are now staying with relatives north of the capital.
Mohammad, however, says he was unable to join them as his mother, who recently suffered a heart attack, is in critical condition and needs care at home.
"My mother is too ill to travel. We can't keep her in a car for hours," he said.
"That's why my sister and I decided to stay and take care of her."
Heavy traffic
For thousands of Iranians, the journey out of Tehran has been fraught with difficulty.
Since Saturday, when Israel's attacks on civilian areas intensified, many of the city's near 10 million residents decided to leave. This led to major traffic jams and long queues at petrol stations.
According to Mohammad, what should have been a 3.5-hour trip for his family ended up taking more than 12.
Other sources told MEE that traffic on all routes out of Tehran remained heavy until Monday night.
One resident from Chitgar, a neighbourhood heavily damaged during the first day of Israeli attacks, said it took them over eight hours to reach Shemshak, a town just 59km north of Tehran.
'This is my home. Where would I go, and why should I leave at all?'
Roya, 62-year-old who lives alone
The resident, who asked not to be named, said that after four hours of driving, they tried to turn back, but the road had been made one-way due to the traffic. They had no choice but to remain stuck on the road.
The road from Tehran to Shemshak is narrow and winding, passing through mountainous terrain. It often becomes blocked during high traffic, even on normal weekends. But in recent days, heavy congestion has affected not just local roads but also major highways connecting Tehran to other cities.
Fariborz, 73, was among those caught in the traffic on Sunday. He, his wife, sister, and brother-in-law were on the highway from Tehran to Fouman, a city 398km to the northeast. They were stuck for seven hours and managed to get only 80km from the capital.
"At my age, I can't sit behind the wheel for long," Fariborz said.
"My whole body was aching, and we were running low on petrol. So we turned around at the first chance we got and went back home," he added.
On Tuesday, Fariborz and his wife finally left Tehran, this time by renting a taxi, as their car had run out of fuel.
Fuel restrictions
Long lines for petrol, which began forming on the first day of the Israeli attacks on Tehran, are still visible in the capital and nearby cities. Fuel rationing has also been introduced.
Before the war, car owners received 60 litres of gas per month at a subsidised price of 15,000 Iranian rials per litre, about $0.018 on the open market, and could buy more at the market rate of 30,000 rials, about $0.36.
Since the war began, the monthly allowance has been cut to 25 litres, and drivers can now only buy 10 litres at a time at the market rate.
These restrictions have also caused a rise in public transportation fares.
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Reza, 76, who lives with his 70-year-old wife near the national broadcasting complex, hit by an air strike on Monday, has been directly affected by the increase in costs.
Reza, who doesn't own a car, has been trying to leave Tehran using public transportation since Saturday, but all buses and shared taxis were fully booked. Eventually, a relative in Behshahr, a city in the north, found a taxi driver willing to come to Tehran and take them back, on the condition that Reza pay for the round trip. He agreed.
Speaking to MEE on Tuesday, Reza said the driver was expected to arrive in Tehran on Wednesday.
"That is, unless he changes his mind or raises the price again," Reza said. "He told us the fare is almost twice the usual rate and called it a 'wartime price'."
The journey is expected to cost him around $60, nearly a third of his monthly pension of about $200.
But for some residents, it is not just the fuel prices, taxi costs, or traffic that keep them from leaving.
Roya, 62, lives alone in the basement of a three-story apartment in central Tehran. When asked why she has decided to stay, she said she made the same choice during the Iran-Iraq war, even when her neighbourhood was bombed.
"This is my home. Where would I go, and why should I leave at all?" she said.