Name: Iranians describe protest crackdown to BBC | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-01-17T16:56:36.000Z
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Iranians have been telling the BBC about the impact of the regime's brutal crackdown on anti government protests.

One man described treating his own gunshot wounds because he was too afraid to seek medical help.

Iran's rulers imposed an Internet blackout more than a week ago and the international media are barred from reporting from inside the country.

But our correspondent Lucy Williamson has been speaking to people who've crossed the border into the Kurdish area of Iraq, and

Iran has shut down the Internet, but its borders are open.

You can't call Iranians inside their country, but

you can speak to them here at this remote mountain crossing to Iraqi Kurdistan, carrying stories of a country locked behind an invisible wall.

No one would speak on camera, afraid of the regime's watchful eyes.

But one man with injuries on his face told us he was shot at a protest in Alborz Province last week.

I was hit in the face by around seven pellet rounds.

They struck above my eyelid, on my forehead, my cheek, my lip, under my ear and along my jaw.

I had to use a razor blade to cut one of the pellets out.

I was too afraid of being arrested to get medical help.

Iran's security forces had crushed protests in his own town, he told us, but

Demonstrations were still continuing in Fardis Mallard and some areas of Tehran.

On Tuesday night, the protests were still going on, but I haven't had any updates since then.

The BBC has seen no hard evidence that street protests are concerning continuing.

Very little footage is trickling out of Iran and the reports we heard today are impossible to confirm.

Several people have told us that protests are continuing in Iran despite the government crackdown.

Iran's regime has treated these protests as an existential threat.

Weak in the region and challenged at home, it still faces a dangerous moment.

The government's repression largely seems to be working, but

the economic problems that sparked this crisis haven't gone away.

In the meantime, civilians are getting killed.

I only want my economic situation to improve.

Behind this mountainous border, Iran's regime is reimposing control, still unable to meet its people's most basic demands protection from foreign attacks and prosperity at home.

On the Iran Iraq border, Len Lease correspondent Hugo Meshager is in the town of Megri on the Armenia, Iran border.

It's still very difficult to get a clear picture of what's happening inside Iran because of these communications blackout imposed by the Iranian government more than a week ago.

But according to the FAAS news agency, which is close to the regime, some of these restrictions are going to be lifted step by step.

And there have been reports suggesting that some people have managed to send SMS messages in some parts of the country.

But the Internet continues to be heavily restricted, a shutdown across the country, although NetBlocks, which is a group that monitors Internet connectivity, said that that there had been a slight rise in connectivity in the country, although that level of connectivity remains at around 2%.

And it does seem that the government has largely been able to quell this wave of anti government protests.

The information coming out of Iran suggests that no large protests have happened across the country in the last few days.

And that was obviously is a result of this communications blackout, but

also a result of the violent crackdown by the security forces, the brutality of the security forces in repressing these demonstrations.

And we've heard accounts of people saying that people were simply terrified to join these demonstrations because of the violence employed by the security forces and because of the communications blackout.

It's also been difficult to verify the number of people who have been killed by the security forces in those demonstrations.

But one human rights organization, the Human Rights Activists in Iran, which is a group based in the U.S.

they say that they've managed to confirm 3,090 deaths, but

many people believe that this number is much higher given the brutality of this crackdown.

Hugo Boshega, let's speak to our correspondent Barbara Pletocha, who's in Doha.

Barbara, the White House says that the mass executions over the protest were halted after President Trump threatened military action.

To what extent then is Tehran listening to Washington?

Well, it's a good question, Martine, but it's a very hard question to answer.

In fact, the Iranians never publicly said that, that they were going to carry out mass executions.

Neither did they publicly announce that they wouldn't.

We do know that here in the Arab Gulf, some of the countries, including Qatar, have been very busy on the phone over the past week calling Iran, talking about trying to organize a de escalation.

We also have reports that these countries joined forces to lobby the Trump administration not to carry out a military intervention, saying that this could lead to chaos, chaos and instability in the region.

So perhaps they had some influence on both.

President Trump has denied that they convinced him not to attack.

He's saying that the decision not to carry out the executions had a big impact on him, and

he's publicly thanked the Iranian leadership for doing that.

The exiled son of the last Iranian shah has called upon the international community to topple the Iranian regime and says that he would like to lead the transition.

How significant a figure is he within Iran?

Well, he has support, but it's difficult to gauge how much.

So, for example, during the protests, some of the protesters were chanting his name, but

also there are others who say any change in Iran should come from the opposition within the country.

And some are suspicious that his supporters, really, all they want to do is reinstall the monarchy of his late father, the shah.

But what's clear is that he has seized this moment presenting himself publicly as the leader of the opposition, saying that he would return to Iran to lead a democratic transition, and

very much again and again calling on President Trump to carry out airstrikes, targeted airstrikes, he said, military intervention in order to even the playing field between the regime.

Now, President Trump was asked earlier this week what he thought of Reza Pahlavi, and

He said, well, he's a nice guy, essentially, but

I don't know how much support he has in Iran.

I don't know whether the country would accept him.

Just briefly, what's the view from there?

Well, the view from Qatar and from its neighbors in the Arab Gulf is very much that there needs to be calm, things need to go back to negotiations of some kind.

And as I mentioned, they've been on the phone a lot this week talking to each other, talking to the Iranians, reports suggesting they were talking to the Trump administration.

Very much worried, first of all, that if Iran would retaliate for any military intervention by the US that this could affect regional stability, affect their interests.

And also not sure what would come next with the regime collapse, with the state collapse, would it fragment?

What they say in their public statements is they're working on initiatives to de escalate, to decrease tension and coordinate for stability, coordinate stability and security.

Barbara, for the moment, thank you very much, Barbara.