Latest news with #Maral
France 24
10 hours ago
- Politics
- France 24
'Nobody deserves to suffer like this': Tehran under Israeli bombardment
Iranian authorities have announced that at least 224 people have been killed since the Israeli attacks began. According to the spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Health, "1,481 people have been injured or killed', with 90 percent of them being civilians. On the night of June 12 to 13, as the first strikes hit, many Iranian social media accounts described experiencing what felt like an earthquake. Starting June 15, the Israeli army called on Iranians living near military or nuclear facilities to evacuate their homes. However, one of our Observers told us: 'We don't know where these facilities are to avoid them. There could be buildings next to me. How should I know?' This opinion was widely shared by other Iranians on social media. 'This is the north side of our apartment,' our Observer says in this video filmed just after a strike hit a neighbouring building. 'As you can see, the building was hit and destroyed, including the kitchen, bedrooms, and only the south side of our bedrooms, which saved our lives.' 'I'm just trying to survive, my brain doesn't work' On June 13, Maral – whose name has been changed to protect her identity – was woken up when a strike hit an adjacent building. The blast from the attack destroyed her kitchen and living room. Only the bedroom is still relatively intact, if you can call it intact. We asked what had happened, and almost all the neighbours said that something had happened in the middle of the alley, and the sirens were going off. We understood that a house that was right behind our house was hit. We stepped on the ruins of the house and came out. I still didn't know what had happened. After a while, some neighbours came up to us to enquire if we were safe. They told us that it looked like Israel had attacked, and later we read on the internet that several places in Tehran had been hit by Israel. 'We are always victims of Israel and all the warmongers of the world' I am experiencing very strong emotions, even now; I am extremely scared, anxious, sad, among other things. And well, I can't understand it, I can't say exactly what I felt. I thought this was the beginning of a war and that bombs would keep raining down on us. I thought that we would be hit again now. In those first moments, I looked up at the sky to see if I could see anything. And while I was having all these feelings, there were also moments when I thought, quite logically, that I should call people to check on them. It's a very, very complicated experience. Nobody deserves to suffer like this. I'm just trying to survive, my brain doesn't work. I can't process and analyse this, but what I can say is that we are always victims of the policies of the Islamic Republic, and we are always victims of Israel and all the warmongers of the world. The ordinary people are always the victims. I hope that everything will end quickly. On June 16, the Israeli army published an evacuation notice for certain areas of Tehran, a city home to approximately 10 million inhabitants. On the same day, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that 'Tehran will burn' if Iran continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front. Amid escalating Israeli airstrikes on residential districts and increasingly threatening rhetoric from Israeli officials, many Tehran residents decided to leave the city. Multiple videos and testimonies gathered by the FRANCE 24 Observers team confirm unprecedented traffic jams on the roads and highways around the capital. 'We evacuated the city, but it took us 30 hours. On an ordinary day, we could get there in 3 hours,' one resident told us. "They struck the apartment across from us," a woman wrote on a video. "A body was thrown into our apartment," she added. 'The city is half empty, lots of people have left, and shops are closed' However, others, like Farshad – whose name has also been changed – opted to stay in the capital. Two nights ago and yesterday at noon, the attacks were horrible, and the explosions were huge. My wife was really scared and we decided that it's better if she left, but I decided to stay at our home. Every attempt to leave the city is not successful, though. My brother also wanted to leave the city. He spent more than 24 hours stuck in traffic and eventually turned back. The city is half empty, lots of people have left, and shops are closed. I'd say that after the Israeli attacks started and until Saturday night, the situation was not like this, even coffee shops were open. However, after the heavy bombing of Saturday night, and more importantly, the car bombings of yesterday, many people decided to leave the city. I think it was the moment when the phrase, 'they don't hit the civilians,' lost its reasoning among people. However, if I tell you that Tehran is a ghost town, it would be an exaggeration; I still see families walking in the streets. I don't see people running or attacking bakeries or grocery shops. The population stayed civilised, at least for the moment. Regarding the general feeling of people, I have to say that I see anger and hatred toward both sides. Before the attack of Israel on Iran, many experts were saying that another massive protest in the coming weeks is inevitable due to the economic crisis and social pressure of the regime. However, as the attacks continue, and especially after the civilians were killed, I see that more and more people who hate the regime are turning against these attacks and Israel. However, it's too soon to say anything; this anger could go toward any side of the conflict.
Al Jazeera
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
A new Muslim and African ban by Trump can and must be prevented
More than a month into US President Donald Trump's second term, his brutal crackdown on immigration and asylum seekers has already harmed countless people. Law enforcement has carried out mass raids across the United States, rounding up people. Tens of thousands have been deported, and the pathway to asylum has been blocked for tens of thousands more. In the face of this onslaught, people have mobilised en masse to protect vulnerable groups at the local and national levels. One piece of legislation could make a difference in this struggle: the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act, introduced to the US Congress on February 6 by Representative Judy Chu and Senator Chris Coons. The bill would create much-needed limitations and accountability for any president intent on categorically banning refugees, asylum seekers, or people of specified faiths or nationalities from entering the US. Why is this needed today? Because there is growing fear that Trump is setting the stage for a resurrection of the notorious Muslim and African bans of his first term. Eight years ago, as a freshly inaugurated president, Trump issued an executive order to fulfill his campaign promise of enacting a 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.' Within hours of the decree, thousands of travellers from predominantly Muslim countries were detained for hours at airports across the nation, as federal agents struggled to decipher who could enter and who would be barred. Hundreds of families were separated, and Trump subsequently expanded the ban to include Tanzania, Sudan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria – dubbed the 'African ban'. People fleeing war, starvation and other humanitarian disasters were thus cut off from seeking shelter in the US. Over 40,000 people were denied visas due to the Muslim and African bans, which caused a 94 percent drop in Muslim refugee admissions between January and November 2017. The traumatic impacts of the Muslim and African bans, currently rescinded, still linger years later: families separated, people deprived of critical medical treatment, travel and visa fee expenses lost, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate. Among those affected is Maral Tabrizi, who was denied her family's support when she most needed it. When Maral was pregnant in 2018, her parents applied for tourist visas to witness the birth of their first grandchild. Her father's application was held up in administrative processing, and while they waited, the Muslim ban was approved by the Supreme Court, and both parents' visas were refused. Maral was deprived of her parents' support during pregnancy and postpartum. With a connective tissue disorder making daily tasks incredibly painful, Maral found it impossible to return to work as quickly as she had hoped. She suffered from postpartum depression due to the pain and sadness this caused and was on antidepressants for more than a year. Her parents will also never be able to meet her father-in-law, who died while they were waiting to come visit the US. Maral was a plaintiff in class-action litigation which sought to force the government to reconsider the visa applications of individuals affected by the bans. Our organisation, Muslim Advocates, co-counsels the case. As a result of the lawsuit, a court ordered the government to provide nearly 25,000 individuals affected by the bans with a fee-waived visa reconsideration process, the implementation of which is ongoing today. However, President Trump is poised to enact a potentially broader travel ban and his administration might target individuals with legal status for questioning and monitoring simply because they are citizens of banned countries or because his administration considers them 'hostile'. This is why since 2019, Muslim Advocates and our partners in the No Muslim Ban Ever coalition have championed Representative Chu's and Senator Coons's NO BAN Act. If passed, this legislation would extend to religion the nondiscrimination provisions under immigration law that already cover race, sex, and nationality. It would also require that any travel restriction imposed under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) section 212(f) be based on specific and credible facts, and in a way that narrowly addresses a compelling government interest. It would require the secretaries of the US Department of State and US Homeland Security to provide notice to Congress before any such travel restriction, and a briefing within 48 hours. Without the limitations of the NO BAN Act, presidents will continue to abuse their power by closing our borders arbitrarily or based on thinly veiled religious or racial hate. Just last year, then-President Joe Biden used the same INA 212(f) authority to shut down the border, in a plausible violation of US immigration law. And Trump invoked 212(f) when he closed the southern border in January. The NO BAN Act constrains such cruelty and presents an alternative to the hate and racism fuelling it. In a world replete with humanitarian disasters, our decisions today can mean the difference between life and death for untold numbers of people. Back in 2017, the No Muslim Ban Ever coalition formed from the movement that showed up at airports, as people from all walks of life converged to protest the first Muslim ban. Today, lawmakers should also take a bold stance for our country's highest aspirations of religious freedom and refuge from tyrannical leaders and pass the NO BAN Act.
