The unprovoked attack by Israel on Iran this week has put civilians in both locations in the line of fire and the entire region at risk of escalating war. There’s a loud chorus from many of my Iranian friends, colleagues, and the artists I’ve written about over the years. Attacks on civilians and neighborhoods across Tehran and the country are being underreported, and artists are calling on us to spread the word.
I’ve said this before, I’ll keep saying it, and I’ll try to support us in living up to it. We can’t just consume music if we don’t also care for the well-being of the people making it. The last days have been a catastrophe for everyone across the region, and it threatens to get worse if we remain silent.
It’s impossible to know where this is leading. We can only express concern for human life first.
Here’s Shahin Entezami, aka Tegh of Temp Illusion, dear friend and one of the people whose music has most inspired me:
Text:
My non Iranian friends! stop your silence now!
Speak up, share the truth, and show the world what’s happening in Iran. The genocide machine is at it again, this time in my own hometown, and the media, along with the fascist monarchist diaspora, who have supported/encouraged Israhell to attack Iran for years and invested heavily to control the social media narrative, are shamelessly covering for them, spreading lies like “only IRGC are targeted” while they bomb energy infrastructures, homes, and innocent civilians.
Enough complicity through silence, break it! Amplify this crime or stand guilty of watching it happen.
The situation in Iran right now is bleak as attacks escalate. While international media are heavily reporting the strikes on Israel and Palestine, they’ve tended to lag in reporting the situation inside Iran (at best) and repress information about the cost paid by Iranian people (at worst). The result is a rift in reporting, where costs to Iranian infrastructure, injuries, and deaths are underreported and downplayed. That’s inexcusable in many ways. Networks like the BBC and CNN, with vast resources and enormous newsrooms, deserve some pressure from us as news consumers. These news brands have verification teams that can process the torrent of videos, audio, and texts now incoming from Iran; they should do so. At least for now, connections online to Iran are available. As of Monday, internet connections are limited at best – evidently in no small part due to blocking by the regime. (Compare Gaza, which is dependent on connections to eSIMs – keep donating.)
This is not simply about “awareness.” Under-reporting civilian targets feeds the manufactured consensus around war and more international backing for escalation. Truly, no one on Earth benefits from that. Let’s talk about facts on the ground.
Via my feed–truly, entirely from music friends, folks I’ve reported on and played with–here are recent examples of widely-spread posts on recent attacks. It seems these are not getting nearly as wide coverage as is the outcome of attacks in Israel.
One of the most dramatic incidents came with an airstrike on the Shahid Chamran Nobonyad Complex, a residential tower, which Iranian state media reported killed 60 people, including 20 children.
There are also independently verifiable reports suggesting a vast scale of loss and death. Associated Press, early Sunday evening Tehran time, has reported Israel’s attacks have “killed 406 people and wounded another 654, according to Washington-based Human Rights Activists.” (That’s HRANA; see below. Health ministry numbers here were closer to 200.) In an eerie repeat of their attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Israel has been issuing evacuation orders for people “around military assets,” but no one can follow what that means or where they’re meant to go. Even the first round of attacks hit civilian areas – and I can attest to this on a personal level, as it’s been friends’ neighborhoods, and their friends and family.
One good resource to follow this news is from HRANA, an NGO committed to neutrality, which works through a range of validated reports on the ground. Here’s their latest, for instance. These explicitly separate military and civilian casualties and indicate what can and cannot be verified:
Dozens Killed and Injured: Report on the Second Day of Israeli Strikes on Iran
Newscord also reports on mass casualties and media bias:
The reports are consistent–as via Amin Zargarnejad this afternoon, also via Shahin, “almost all areas in central Tehran are under heavy attacks.”
As you’ll read in the media, the Iranian diaspora can be divided. There are understandably mixed emotions, too, about regime targets, and you’ll notice many of the statements here are quick to separate issues and the violence the regime has caused. But I’m hearing growing dismay from many corners over the Israeli attacks, including people deeply critical of the regime (even to the point of having been imprisoned by it). That’s also caused many activists to speak up – one example, English/German/Persian:
This guide to allies reminds people to be aware of the violence of both the regime and Israeli aggression, and how Iranians can be trapped between:
I’m sure someone will bring this up again, and I don’t feel a particular need to defend myself on this, but let me be clear: I watch every civilian death and casualty with horror. We’ve seen video reports from Israel as their missile defense proves permeable. I’m deeply concerned for everyone there; this is hard to watch. There’s nothing to celebrate in any civilians dying in any numbers, anywhere. That includes deaths in Tamra in the north, identified by Haaretz as “Manar Khatib, 45, and her two daughters, Shada, 20, and Hala, 13, as well as their relative Manal Khatib, 41,” plus seven more in Bat Yam with ages from 10 to 80. In Bat Yam, many of the victims were Ukrainian. Arabs, immigrants, and refugees are again paying with their lives for another war, an echo of the mass displacement of North African migrants and refugees caught up in Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.
We’re adding new names from the region atop an accelerating genocide in Gaza. I recently caught up with the Grieving Doves volunteer group here in Berlin. They record names and ages of martyrs in Gaza, marking these on cloth wings they construct and take to events. These constant lists should speak to our basic humanity. For a move advertised as “self-defense,” it’s clear that no one is safe, that every generation suffers losses, that children pay a disproportionate toll for a war they’ve nothing to do with, and that death is the only outcome.
Palestinian advocates are also expressing their concern, as Arab, Palestinian, and minority groups can be left without access to shelters. (From Issa Amro, for instance, you can watch the occupation displace Palestinians in the West Bank. This produces a horrific cycle: Israel can leave these groups vulnerable in attacks, then instrumentalize their deaths in ongoing retalation.)
There’s reason to think that Ukraine, too, stands to lose here, too, as Kyiv Independent has editorialized.
On the topic of media coverage:
There is no shortage of allies here. There’s no shortage of information. As has been the case around the world lately, what’s lacking is clear coverage from larger news media and action from our leaders. We can only keep the pressure up.
Music requires safety, requires peace. Words cannot express how deeply I want this to end. We can’t just sit with that helplessness. Let’s do what we can.
Watch the reports. Follow Iranians. Spread the reports that the news media are not. If you see bias in reporting you follow, complain to the editorial staff. If you have a government official you can reach to encourage de-escalation, do it.
And to my friends in the lines of fire, to all our friends watching from abroad, I hope tonight is not too hard. Take care.
Update: From independent Lebanese outlet Megaphone notes that Israeli shelters themselves may be vulnerable and inadequate in emergencies.
And more Iranian artists are sharing urgent pleas. I’ll keep adding these in their diversity: