The Price We Pay Under Oppressive Regimes: Question and Answer on the Bombing of Iran, with the Ones Outside, Whose Hearts Remain Inside
June 2025
Emily Marie Palmer, Human Rights Fellow
The June 13 outbreak of a relatively short but internationally significant bombing campaign in Iran led to global headlines dominated by reports of continued escalation, analysis of strategic military objectives, mounting casualties, and questions about what comes next for the region, and for the world. Beneath the abstraction of policy and geopolitics were the ordinary people whose lives are caught in the middle; families in Iran facing terror and displacement, and a diaspora gripped by fear and helplessness as they watched the crisis unfold from afar.
In this piece, we hear from Iranians living abroad whose loved ones were inside the country navigating danger, displacement, and the painful uncertainty of the future. These personal conversations illuminate not only the devastating traumas of war, but also the enduring bonds of family, the longing for connection and safety, and dreams of a free Iran.
Q: Can you describe how your close friends or family faced the lived experience of the bombing?
A: My family and friends in Tehran were living in terror, especially those near District 3. The air was thick with pollution and fear, and with the water shutoffs, even basic survival became a fight. Some tried to flee to the outskirts or escape north, but getting out of the city was nearly impossible. Roads were jammed. My family was gripped with panic. The city felt like a trap. Some of the bombing was extremely close to my cousin's home. Windows trembled. There was no sense of normalcy. Just survival. - Karla M., USA
A: Half of my relatives live in Tehran, and during the initial bombing, most decided to leave. The process of leaving with a car, stuck in traffic that moved inch by inch, was fraught with fear, worry, desperation and sheer terror. I could tell that for them, not knowing what would come next, while the sound of bombs punctured the air, was incredibly traumatizing for them. I have never seen them so afraid and worried. - Sarina M., USA
A: My family lives in different cities including Tehran, Karaj, Yazd, and Mashhad. Some were able to leave these cities and went to the north of Iran or homes out of the city. All of them were living in uncertainty, fear and felt isolated and disconnected from the world. - Anonymous
A: Thankfully, we managed to move our immediate family to the north where they were safe, but so many of my friends were still in Tehran. They’re not only reliving their own childhood traumas—they now carry the fear and responsibility of protecting their own children. - Lili A., Canada
Q: What have they described that had the greatest impact on you? Did you see yourself change during the bombing?
A: They said it was like breathing through smoke and fear. I felt like I was living it too—but from the inside out. I couldn’t sleep. I was haunted by nightmares. I felt helpless. My doctor finally prescribed something to calm me down. My blood pressure spiked so high it was concerning, and I normally run low. - Karla M., USA
A: At one point, the air was filled with smoke and my friends said they had trouble breathing—picturing them like that tore me apart. A dear friend said that the bombings one night shook her room. I talked to her 13 days after the bombing started, and she could still hear bombs falling in her ears. My body immediately started to show signs of extreme stress, through horrific nightmares and sudden severe back pain that came with nightfall. I dreaded sleep - because I had to put my phone away, and losing the connection tortured my mind. - Sarina M., USA
A: The biggest concern was for my sister who had surgery just five days before the attack on Tehran. She couldn’t even drive to go to her doctor for follow ups. She was alone because couldn’t go outside of the city with my aunt’s family. After days of living in fear, she was able to go to Mashhad by train with the help of some friends to find a ticket. From the beginning of the bombing, my life was upside down with nightmares, fear, anger, anxiety and depression. My phone was always on to follow every moment of news. - Anonymous
A: Ever since the bombings began and videos started circulating on social media, every time I scrolled through my feed, I was pulled back into the traumas of my childhood and the Iran-Iraq War. I remember being just six years old, my sister only four, when our mother would wake us up in the middle of the night to run down the stairs and seek shelter. I remember the night a bomb hit a house just two streets away and shattered all our windows. The sound of sirens at school, the screams of children, the chaos as we hid under our desks—all of it comes rushing back. I was reliving those nightmares watching bombing of the same streets I once walked, the neighborhoods I grew up in—the same ones I dream of returning to one day, when Iran is free. - Lili A., Canada
These testimonies remind us that war is never abstract. It is a brutal reality in the bodies of the people who are impacted both directly and indirectly: smoke-filled lungs, sleepless nights, and digital notifications bringing news that is equally yearned for and dreaded. As international headlines chart missile strikes and geopolitical power plays, these voices call upon us to remember the lives and human rights of people caught in the crossfire. Their stories illuminate the psychological and emotional toll borne by civilians and their loved ones abroad – a critical dimension of conflict too often sidelined in formal analysis. Their pain, humanity, and longing for freedom must remain central to how we understand and respond to the inherent crisis of the Islamic Republic occupying Iran.