the Times – Reprieve for Iran but for many the dread is just beginning
It was 2am in northern Iran and Fatemeh was unable to sleep. If the end of civilisation was coming as President Trump had warned, the 39-year-old human resources manager would not be unprepared for the dying of the light.
She had bought supplies of drinking water and candles, she told The Times on Wednesday. Her mobile phone and electronic devices were charged, and she had taken the precaution of fleeing Tehran, the scene of the most savage destruction, with her three-year-old son. And yet still Fatemeh could not sleep.
By all rights, what happened next should have left her jubilant. Trump’s reprieve, 90 minutes before his deadline to agree terms for a ceasefire, had spared Iranians yet another round of suffering. Relief, though, was soon replaced by a realisation for many Iranians: the future may not be so bright after all.
‘I feel like someone on death row’
“I feel like someone on death row who has been taken back to her cell at dawn and does not know when the noose will be put around her neck,” Fatemeh said, speaking via a messaging service with her server disguised.
She was not alone. With the tenuous ceasefire in place, Iranians across the country said that they were relieved that a truce had taken effect, but feared a more repressive regime, empowered to once again crush voices of discontent.
Maral, a 37-year-old teacher in Karaj, a city just west of Tehran, told The Times: “When I saw the ceasefire news, for a moment I felt relieved. The hell he had threatened to unleash had been stopped.
“Of course, when you see violence, the killing of civilians, it upsets you. But on the other hand, many people thought war would bring regime change. And now even war has not made the regime go.”
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on April 7 that since the war started at least 3,636 people had been killed, including 1,701 civilians — among them at least 254 children — as well as 1,221 military personnel and 714 people whose status had not been classified. Large parts of the country lie in ruins, with attacks in the last hours of the conflict destroying bridges across the country.
All the anxiety is affecting the mental health of many Iranians, said one doctor in Tehran. She had spent Tuesday treating a large number of patients with panic attacks.
“Honestly, I’m not feeling well at all after the ceasefire news,” said the doctor, who — like many people interviewed over messaging apps during the internet blackout — spoke on condition of anonymity. “Everyone around me feels the same. Unfortunately, once again, we are left with the mullahs.”
Iranian officials portrayed the ceasefire as a victory, and state media celebrated it in triumphalist terms. “Nearly all the aims of the war have been achieved, and your brave sons have driven the enemy into historic helplessness and a lasting defeat,” Iran’s supreme national security council declared in a statement. Meanwhile, the regime’s enforcers, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned that its finger was still on “the trigger”.
‘The wounded snake will remain’
For many civilians, then, the exhaustion, anger and dread remains.
Sahar, a 32-year-old content creator in Tehran, said: “Last night I felt as if I was having a heart attack. Of course, I do not want the country’s infrastructure to be destroyed. But what I am seeing now is disgusting.”
She said she feared the Islamic republic would emerge from the war stronger, richer and more repressive. “I’m really angry — really angry,” she said. “This wounded snake will remain, with a deal that will make the Islamic republic richer and lift international pressure off it. After this, it’s going to crush every single one of us. There will be no movement, no resistance.”
Rights activists have warned that the regime, facing threats abroad and fearful of domestic unrest it brutally crushed in January, will retaliate against people inside the country. At least 13 political prisoners, including dissidents and January protesters, have already been hanged during the war, and dozens more are at risk of execution, according to Sardar Pashaei, the executive director of the Washington-based Hiwa Freedom Foundation.
Trump pulls back from brink — but his reckless rhetoric has consequences
“These numbers reflect a systematic campaign targeting dissent — especially protesters and marginalised communities,” he said.
A political activist in Tehran said: “The end of the fighting does not guarantee an end to violence inside the country. On the contrary, the regime’s behaviour in recent crises suggests repression could intensify sharply, especially now that it feels victorious and newly confident.”
He said the United States had achieved its own objectives and that helping ordinary Iranians had never really been one of them, despite Trump initially framing the campaign as a push for regime change.
“America got what it wanted,” the political activist said. “‘Make Iran Great Again’ was just an empty slogan. What worries me now is that once again we, the people, will be the main losers in this war.”
Golrokh, a marketing manager in Tehran, said the Iranian authorities were already turning the ceasefire into a propaganda victory. “The regime is celebrating victory and saying it forced the other side to accept its conditions,” she said. “We will not forget that, just hours before Trump’s deadline to attack power plants expired, the regime’s priority was Lebanon — not the people of Iran.”
‘People are exhausted’
For all that, there were some who were cautiously optimistic. Negar, a 40-year-old translator who remained in Tehran to care for her mother, said she hoped the war might finally force the authorities to confront the country’s economic and political crises.
“What I want most is for us to come out of this international isolation after the war, and for them finally to understand that people are exhausted,” she said. “I want the regime to understand that this cannot go on, that they have lost their legitimacy, and that even if this system does not disappear, it needs fundamental reform.”
Fear, then, has merely changed its face. The bombs may have paused, but uncertainty — about repression, economic collapse, isolation and what comes next — has not.
For now, Fatemeh is keeping her supplies at the ready. Survival is still a work in progress.