The Surprisingly Normal Streets of Tehran

No audio? Hover over the video player, and tap the Click to Unmute button. Subtitles are also available. Closed captioning provided by Vimeo and may contain minor inconsistencies. Register now to watch this on-demand recording. Only FP subscribers can submit questions for FP Live interviews. Only FP subscribers can submit questions for FP Live interviews. While the conflict in Iran has dominated headlines in the last two months, accounts of ordinary life in the Islamic Republic are scarce. On the latest episode of FP Live, I spoke to the reporter Ali Hashem, who spent six weeks in Tehran during the ongoing war and has previously lived in Iran. Hashem currently works for the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera but has been visiting Iran for nearly two decades as a correspondent for the BBC and regional media. According to Hashem, life in the capital, Tehran, looks more normal than one might imagine. Shops and malls are largely open, and regular people seem to be rallying around the flag in the face of an external threat. And while the internet as we know it is shut down, a local intranet of sorts—with access to local versions of Netflix, Uber, and WhatsApp—is allowing people a semblance of regular life. While the conflict in Iran has dominated headlines in the last two months, accounts of ordinary life in the Islamic Republic are scarce. On the latest episode of FP Live, I spoke to the reporter Ali Hashem, who spent six weeks in Tehran during the ongoing war and has previously lived in Iran. Hashem currently works for the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera but has been visiting Iran for nearly two decades as a correspondent for the BBC and regional media. According to Hashem, life in the capital, Tehran, looks more normal than one might imagine. Shops and malls are largely open, and regular people seem to be rallying around the flag in the face of an external threat. And while the internet as we know it is shut down, a local intranet of sorts—with access to local versions of Netflix, Uber, and WhatsApp—is allowing people a semblance of regular life. Subscribers can watch the full interview on the video box atop this page or download the FP Live podcast. What follows here is a lightly edited and condensed transcript. Ravi Agrawal: Ali, you spent six weeks in Tehran while the war was going on. You’re out now. Talk a little bit about what that was like. What were you seeing around you? Ali Hashem: Life in Tehran seemed to be normalizing to the situation of war. That gives you an indication that the system and the people were taking into consideration that this could be a long war—something that could be compared, for example, to the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, where the Iraqi army struck positions and targets in Tehran on a daily basis. And so people have to get back to their lives. What I saw during the 50 days of my stay in Iran was an attempt by the people, the state, and the whole society to normalize the situation. I arrived in Tehran 10 days after the war began, in which time many people left and returned back to the capital. By then it was clear which neighborhoods were being hit on a daily basis. Many people took precautions and left for other neighborhoods, or at least slept in other places at night. Many friends took their families to the north while they stayed in Tehran to continue their work and daily commitments. So if I’m to describe life in Tehran during those days, it was close to normal. You can see some restaurants open, some shops open, some malls partially open. Contrary to the 12-day war, which saw Tehran almost empty, people were in the streets. RA: I have to say, everything you’re saying surprises me. Weren’t people scared to be out? AH: The issue here is that there is a very striking contrast between my visit in February to Tehran and my visit in March. In February, I went just days after the end of the protests, where there were at least 3,500 people killed, according to numbers from the Iranian government. According to opposition numbers, the numbers were doubled. According to [U.S.] President [Donald] Trump, maybe 40,000 people were killed. The mood in the streets before the war was completely different. We heard a lot from people—and actually we were even concerned by the amount of boldness some people had—who were talking openly about waiting for that war. I’m not saying that’s a majority, but there was a portion of society in Tehran that was anticipating this war and waiting for a solution. RA: I have to ask, Ali, most journalists who are not Iranian don’t get visas to go to Iran. It’s very, very hard to get in. I can’t go in. You’ve been going in and out as a reporter with Al Jazeera. What kind of access did you have? Did you have government officials following you around? Do you think you got an accurate picture of what life was like on the ground? AH: Al Jazeera has a bureau there. BBC went there. I think Lyse Doucet was there a few days ago. Also, a CNN reporter was there. C

The Surprisingly Normal Streets of Tehran

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