How Iranians are living through months of war and government crackdowns

Amna Nawaz:

Today, Iran launched a drone attack targeting U.S. forces in Kuwait. That comes as U.S. officials investigate whether Iran was also behind a cyberattack at dozens of water systems in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, as the war enters its sixth month, the toll continues to grow. The U.N. says more than 2,500 children have been killed or injured in Iran alone.

For more on the impact of the war inside Iran, I spoke earlier with New York Times reporter Yeganeh Torbati, whose work has focused on the lives of everyday Iranians. She joined us from Istanbul.

Yeganeh, welcome to the "News Hour." Thanks so much for joining us.

Yeganeh Torbati, The New York Times:

Thanks so much for having me, Amna.

Amna Nawaz:

So this war has now entered its sixth month, and while much of the focus has been on U.S. strategy and the widening conflict, we know inside Iran the repercussions of the military strikes and the economic pressure, those are borne by everyday Iranians.

So tell us what you hear from them about the impact of this war. What are the stories they're telling you?

Yeganeh Torbati:

I think, for most of the people that me and my colleagues are able to speak with, things have really gotten a lot worse for them since this war started.

And I would say that even includes people, a significant portion of the people that we would speak with in January or even last year wanted some kind of military intervention because they saw it as perhaps the only way that they could dislodge this government.

But even among some of those people, when we speak to them now, there's really just a sense that everything has gotten worse for them, and this government is still in place and is even more willing and able to kind of carry out really brutal violence and repression.

People talk about the economy a lot. Inflation has gotten even worse than it was prior to the war, and it was already pretty bad then. There's been job losses as a result of the war and the Internet shutdown that the government implemented for three months. Infrastructure has been damaged.

And it's unlikely that the government will have enough resources to really fix everything that needs to be fixed. So, overall, there's sort of a feeling of despair and just feeling like they kind of got the worst of both worlds now.

Amna Nawaz:

In terms of you and your colleagues even being able to do your jobs from afar, how hard is that? How difficult is it to connect with people inside Iran and get them to talk to you?

Yeganeh Torbati:

It's really difficult.

I mean, so first of all, for a large portion of this year, both during the protests in January and then also during the war, the Internet was just completely shut off, and there were very few ways to really get in touch with people.

What we're seeing now also is there's just a lot of fear in society right now. There's -- the pace of executions has really picked up. The government is going after people who even just criticize it on social media. And so the idea of kind of speaking to a Western reporter outside the country just carries a lot of perceived risk for people.

And that really -- it hampers our ability even to report on for instance, the civilian casualties of the war and of U.S. strike. So we're finding that reporting quite challenging on all fronts, although, of course, we continue and we reach out to people and we try to keep doing that work.

Amna Nawaz:

You do continue. You have filed a number of reports. One of the most striking themes in your reporting too is this gap between the government's narrative of resilience and persistence and strength and what people tell you about what they are living through.

So what do people you talk to say about the government's claims of strength?

Yeganeh Torbati:

I think one thing, if you look back at Iran's history, and I think it's true today, is, the government is sort of most successful and most kind of able to portray itself as successful when it has an external enemy to fight.

I think the part where the government has more of a challenge is in the actual day-to-day domestic governance, and that is where people see kind of the biggest gap, this dual narrative. On the one hand, they want to project strength, but then, on the other hand, when you sort of look a little bit more closely sometimes, you sort of see a different picture.

Last year, we saw water shortages in Tehran, in many places, and those issues have not been addressed. So, I think Iranians sort of experience these things day to day, and those are the sort of the sorts of things that they tell us about.

Amna Nawaz:

Yeganeh, while I have you, I want to tap into your expertise and ask you about some news I know you have been following this week as well, which is now that U.S. intelligence agencies have reportedly assessed, Iran was behind a coordinated cyberattack on dozens of local water facilities across Minnesota. It's not a definitive conclusion yet.

But given your reporting on this, does this line up with previous Iranian tactics?

Yeganeh Torbati:

I think it is actually kind of a call back to a sort of earlier generation of U.S.-Iran confrontation, where the U.S. has carried out cyber operations against Iran, particularly targeting its nuclear program, and Iran has invested in cyber capabilities within its military and intelligence services.

And so the countries kind of used to sort of have these attacks against each other that were sort of less out in the open than the military attacks that they're now having. If Iran feels like its infrastructure is being attacked, it's shown the willingness to sort of do what it sees as tit for tat strikes.

And so it raises a lot of questions about whether it would use this kind of capability as sort of a retaliation tactic.

Amna Nawaz:

We so appreciate you sharing your experience and your insights with us.

That is Yeganeh Torbati of The New York Times joining us from Istanbul tonight.

Yeganeh, thank you.

Yeganeh Torbati:

Thank you so much, Amna.