Iranians fear poverty and reprisals if war breaks out with Israel

According to the international press, the possibility of war with Israel has awakened fears of poverty and repression among many Iranians, who believe that the country’s already difficult economic situation could worsen.

Faced with the government’s military fervor, many Iranians appear more concerned about the economic and freedom consequences of a hypothetical war with Israel than the conflict itself, according to the EFE news agency.

On April 1, Israel bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, in an attack that killed three Revolutionary Guard generals, according to Tehran, which responded on Saturday with hundreds of rockets and drones attacking the Jewish state.

Tel Aviv has assured that it will respond to the unprecedented Iranian attack, which, despite its spectacular nature, caused almost no damage.

“If there is a war in a country, no one will think about economic or social problems,” Ali Reza, a 35-year-old teacher and father of one, told EFE journalist Jaime Leon.

“The economic crisis is making us poorer and poorer,” said Reza, a Tehran resident, stressing that if Israel attacks Iran again, there will be a war.

The Iranian economy is suffering from 40 percent inflation and the rial (Iranian currency) is at historic lows against the dollar, leading to an impoverished middle class that has less and less purchasing power. In northern Tehran, well-dressed people can be seen asking for help.

“Please buy me some chicken,” a woman who did not look homeless asked recently in a central supermarket, and this is not an isolated example, according to an EFE journalist.

Iran lives under economic sanctions that the United States reimposed in 2018 after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear treaty, and Washington has announced new restrictive measures aimed at selling Iranian oil, further exacerbating the situation.

In addition to the worsening economic situation, many Iranians fear increased repression against the population, which has already happened in one form or another after Iran’s attack on Israel.

Iranian prosecutors filed complaints against the Etemad and Jahan Sanat newspapers, Eskan News CEO Yashar Soltani and columnist Abas Abdi for their coverage of the attack on Israel.

“War will give the government the opportunity to suppress opponents with greater force, classifying them as traitors who collaborate with the enemy,” Maziar, a 39-year-old engineer from Tehran, told EFE.

The engineer remembers with horror the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s: “People stood in long lines to buy the most basic products. It would be worse now.”

Maziar cited videos circulating on social media of women detained by so-called customs police, who are waging a new campaign to impose the wearing of the Islamic hijab.

“We are witnessing the government’s fight against women. They even drag women across the floor!” he said.

Maryam, another 34-year-old Tehran resident who does not wear a hijab, fears authorities will take advantage of tensions with Israel to “take a stricter approach towards women without a hijab.”

“We do not want war under any pretext,” prominent Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh said in a statement.

The activist summed up the difficult situation faced by many Iranians who condemn the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, as well as the Israeli state’s war in the Gaza Strip, the Damascus consulate bombing and the rocket attack on Israeli soil.

The lawyer questioned what Iran had actually done for the Palestinians, a case supported by Tehran, one of Hamas’s main allies, while praising South Africa for taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“Iran has helped the Palestinian people more than South Africa?” asked an activist who has been detained several times in Iran.