Even after Israel issued an evacuation warning on Monday for part of Tehran, Iran’s state-run television, whose offices are within that zone, continued as normal, airing videos of children singing patriotic songs and images of Iranian missiles hitting Israeli targets – up until the moment an Israeli strike hit the television studio. The news host sprang up from her chair, and a man, expressing defiance, could be heard saying “God is great” on air.
Iranians complained in interviews about the slow, sparse provision of safety protocols and instructions from the government. These Iranians contrasted the government’s relative silence on safety measures to its frequent use of text messages to admonish women over insufficiently modest attire. To fill the vacuum, Iranians were turning to social media, friends and family, and foreign-based news outlets for information.
“Israel is providing shelters for its citizens. There are alarms going off at the times of attack, and of course they have the Iron Dome” missile defence system, said Alireza, a Tehran resident who left the city for the northern Gilan province at the weekend. “We have nothing, not even a government that would bother giving safety suggestions to people.”
Like other Iranians interviewed, he spoke on the condition that his full name be withheld for fear of government reprisal.
A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York declined to respond to specific questions.
The government did provide some broad safety instructions over the weekend. Hossein Kermanpour, spokesman for the Health Ministry, told an Iranian news outlet that during Israeli strikes, Iranians should try to “identify safe areas in their homes or workplaces” and stay away from balconies and windows. And a government spokeswoman, Fatemeh Mohajerani, recommended that Iranians take shelter in metros, mosques and schools. It was unclear why mosques and schools would be safer than other buildings, given that Israel had already targeted residential and other civilian structures.
On social media, some Iranians tried to fill the gap by asking for advice on what to do if they live near nuclear sites and what medicines they should try to gather. One Tehran-based neighbourhood group posted instructions on Instagram about what to do if residents heard explosions. On at least one Telegram channel, thousands of Tehran residents tried to coordinate shared rides out of the city.
The deep distrust between citizens and the government, which has built up over years in the aftermath of other tragedies, has proved to be an obstacle to an effective emergency response, some Iranians said. In 2020, for example, the Iranian military shot down a civilian airliner and did not take responsibility for three days, insisting that it was not at fault. And in the first days of the coronavirus crisis, the President at the time urged Iranians to carry on with their everyday lives, because “spreading fear and attempting to halt the country’s activities is the enemies’ conspiracy”. The virus went on to ravage the country.
The chair of Tehran’s city council, Mehdi Chamran, told reporters that the capital city had no suitable bomb shelters, saying that government officials had not paid attention to the issue in the past. He suggested subway tunnels as an alternative. Some older buildings may have bunkers dating back to the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, but access to those is limited.
In the absence of government orders, some people took matters into their own hands. One Tehran resident who runs a private business said he was in a group chat with other executives in his industry, and they decided to tell people to work remotely if possible. Employees were trying to telework but were finding it difficult to do so because the internet was slow, he said.
About midday on Sunday, employees could see smoke from the sites of explosions, the businessman said. These employees quickly began packing up their belongings and leaving the office for home. Many decided to leave Tehran completely.
“There was no protocol given, nothing at all,” he said. “No preparation, no thinking, nothing.”
One Tehran woman whose home was located in the area deemed by Israel to be an evacuation zone said the government had been silent about whether she and her neighbours should leave. She said she decided to do so. But she said that she and those around her would probably stay away from any sites recommended by officials as secure.
“The people don’t have any trust toward the government,” she said. “Even if they recommend places to take refuge, I and those around me won’t trust their advice.”
