On a special episode of the Daily Mail’s Deep Dive podcast, Middle East Correspondent Natalie Lisbona and Chief Foreign Correspondent Andy Jehring exchange stories from inside a teetering Islamic Republic.
Lisbona and Jehring collaborated on a recent investigation for the Daily Mail, which shared correspondences each had with regular people living in Iran.
These brave men and women, who were anonymised in the piece for their safety, painted a picture of a society governed by ‘complete repression’, Lisbona said, where public executions, sexual violence and state surveillance are a daily occurrence.
The regime’s repression has only worsened since mass protests swept the country in late December and January. During the bloodiest 48 hours of the crackdown, on January 8 and 9, more than 30,000 protest-related deaths were reportedly registered in civilian hospitals.
The regime’s repression has only worsened since mass protests swept the country in late December and January
‘They’re talking about a country in which you’re constantly watched,’ Lisbona said, describing what her sources told her about life six months on from the massacre.
‘You’re not allowed to convert to Christianity. There are executions in public. One Iranian dissident told me that when they watched The Handmaid’s Tale, they felt it was based on Iran.
‘I have heard so many stories of sexual violence perpetrated by the Basij [the regime’s militia].
‘The government controls everything. The authorities can simply shut down the internet whenever they want. Many don’t know where their families are.’
Reporting on these horrors is made even harder, Jehring said, by another prong of the regime’s repression: disinformation.
The Islamic Republic has weaponised artificial intelligence, he explained, deploying it to confuse the world’s media and terrify its own people.
He said: ‘There have been some very stressful moments in trying to ensure we weren’t repeating regime propaganda… it’s so interesting and disturbing how it works.
‘They actually put out AI generated images of people who are not actually on death row, as a kind of fear tactic.’
Elsewhere in the podcast, Lisbona said some of the Iranians she spoke to felt ‘very disappointed’ that Washington chose to strike a deal with the Islamic Republic rather than see its stated aim of regime change through.
President Donald Trump had promised protesters back in January that ‘help is on its way’. When Operation Epic Fury was launched in February, Lisbona said her sources were ‘jumping for joy’.
Lisbona said some of the Iranians she spoke to felt ‘very disappointed’ that Washington chose to strike a deal with the Islamic Republic
But with a chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes, serving as a bargaining chip, it seems likely the Islamic Republic will survive the conflict.
‘[The Iranians] felt really left alone,’ Lisbona said.
‘But they’re very determined. They do say: ‘That’s not going to stop us.’
‘Across the board from everyone I’ve spoken to… they say something is definitely going to happen. It’s just a matter of time because people are so angry.’
Listen to the full episode by searching for Deep Dive now, wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Thursday.
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