Clamped between barren mountains and crossing the nearly 600-km border between Iran and Türkiye, the family pulled their suitcases and drove their strollers through fixed gates to waiting taxis and vans.
Some fled Iran to escape reinforced air strikes, while others tried to enter the country to reunite with their families, after days of internet blackouts that kept them from contacting them.
As Iranian space closed, they had to resort to remote borders.
“We have to go [to Iran] And be with our family…but maybe we will leave again.
Souf was on vacation in Türkiye when Israel launched an air strike on Iran on June 13. Sunday – U.S. President Donald Trump directly attacked Washington for several hours when he was heading home with his mother.
Souf is comfortable publishing his image and full name, but most Iranians CBC news ask to remain anonymous or only identify with their names because they fear the impact of speaking to the government.
Iran was ruled by a strict theocracy regime, which took power after the 1979 revolution. Within the country, the opposition is subject to rigid and violent oppression.
People were even killed or imprisoned for the slightest sign of protest. Independent media have no tolerance, and the state's narrative of IT narrative ultimately controls narratives outside the Iranian border.
About 90 million countries are divided politically, and those who talk to CBC News have different opinions on who should ultimately blame escalating tensions and what conflicts can lead to.
But the fact that their lives were destroyed by air strikes and even endangered, the Israeli government said, targeting military sites and being linked to the Iranian regime.
While transiting the same border, a 25-year-old Iranian told CBC News that in the first few days of Israel's air movement, the capital Tehran was in a bad situation.
“It's so bad…I heard 10 to 15 explosions around my house,” he said.
The man was traveling to Toronto recently after receiving a work visa and he didn't want to publish his name because he was worried that he would face retribution when he eventually returned to visit his family.
When asked about Iranians’ views on the prospects for conflicts that could lead to regime change, he carefully chose his words.
“There are different groups in the country, and yes, some of them are on the streets right now,” he said.
“But most people just want to live peacefully…no problems, no fight.”
He has no air tickets to Canada yet because he says some Iranian banks don't have jobs. The Iranian government said it had imposed nearly cosmopolitan internet blackouts for most of last week to prevent cyberattacks.
“Just want to survive this moment”
Over the past few days, CBC News has contacted several Iranian contacts. Most people cannot respond because they cannot connect to the internet. But when the service partially resumed on Saturday, people began replying with voice memos from cities across the country.
“[Everyone] Just want to survive this moment,” said someone who just wants to be identified as Hamed.
“We don’t have much trust in what the government is creating… there seems to be a kind of solidarity among the people.”
Hami said he joined the Popular Exodus in Tehran earlier last week. He described driving along a traffic-ridden road, and the explosion echoed all night.
The trip to Qazvin City should have taken less than two hours, only nine hours.
“The accident happened a lot,” he said. “The road is not safe. The long queues of gasoline stretched along the roadside made the situation worse.”
He said he was particularly angry at the internet outage because it meant that people outside Iran had no accurate sense of the impact of air strikes.
On Saturday, the Iranian Ministry of Health said about 400 Iranians were killed during the Israeli strike and another 3,056 were injured.
But on Sunday, a Washington-based group human rights activist said its numbers showed higher death tolls, with more than 800 people killed.
Among the dead, the group said it identified 363 civilians and 215 security forces personnel.
Israel's anger towards us is getting stronger
Hours before the U.S. hit Iranian nuclear sites with bombers and cruise missiles, Hamed predicted that Iranian society would be united in anger if Washington chose to participate.
“Hate towards Israel and the United States is rising sharply here,” he said.
“This foreign power…can somehow bring us freed fantasy—we just don’t think it’s a possibility.”
Others believe that Israel's strike on Iran's military and security infrastructure has undermined the regime's stability even without external signs of an imminent overthrow of the government.
“We hope this war will end the Islamic Republic's dictatorship,” a 70-year-old woman said.
“[Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamanei has fought the world for decades and has made the Iranian people feel sad, sad and painful. ”
Since 1989, Khamenei has maintained his power by controlling almost all aspects of society, including the armed forces and the Iranian revolutionary guards.
Homa said in a voice message that there were checkpoints throughout the city before she left Tehran and cars were constantly searching.
Alam Saleh, a senior lecturer at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, visited Tehran after being invited to speak at a meeting.
He remains in the capital, but it is estimated that about one-third of a city with about 10 million remain.
Saleh said the GPS navigation system would not work because Iran was using a jamming system to try to undermine Israel's air strikes.
In a voice message he sent to CBC News, an explosion can be heard in the background.
While he admitted that he was worried about his safety, he said he was not ready to head north to safer areas in the country.
“I witnessed the revolution of 1979. I witnessed the Iran-Iraq War,” he said.
“I think this could be another very historical moment in Iran’s contemporary history.”
