by Maariv Online, Anouk Carter-Dorf
"The government and people seem stuck in a position of uncertainty where they are neither fully in peace nor at war. In a sense, the entirety of Iran has been trapped in a 'Groundhog Day' scenario."
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When Alireza Talakoubnejad, a young Iranian living in the United States, returned to his home in Iran after its brutal war with Israel, he saw a country significantly changed, one with deep-rooted trauma, a newfound reluctant respect for Israel's military precision, and emerging social reforms.
In a deeply personal X/Twitter post in late October, Talakoubnejad recounted what he saw and heard in today’s Iran, a country he says is entirely different from the one he left behind.
The four main fronts of change he described include: the war’s aftermath, daily living conditions, public attitudes toward the regime, and shifting social norms. But above all, he observed that the profound transformation in Iranian society stemmed from internal changes, not from external influence.
For the second time this year, I had the opportunity to go home and visit Iran.
— Alireza Talakoubnejad (@websterkaroon) October 25, 2025
I usually don’t have the opportunity to go back this frequently (I have a full time job and a life), but the 12 Day War dramatically changed my perspective on my priorities & I made it happen at the… https://t.co/jg1DjbUmMH
Iran's government is losing its people
Mistrust of the government, Talakoubnejad said, runs deeper than ever. "This isn’t new, but has significantly exacerbated with the electricity & water shortages and then the experience of the war. And this lack of confidence has turned into strong feelings of vulnerability.""Iran has always had its difficulties," Talakoubnejad wrote, "but things have never (at least in my lifetime) deteriorated to this level."
He described the development of nightly water outages, summer power cuts, and suffocating smog that blanketed major cities. In Ahvaz, a strange haze from marsh fires across the Iraqi border caused widespread breathing problems. Inflation has soared to unbearable heights. Basic goods have turned into luxuries. Families are barely making ends meet; food now consumes most household budgets.
Business owners are taking out loans and buying gold, scrambling to pay off debts as a collapsing currency drives prices down. Even buying a car has become absurd, he said. "Someone that wants to buy a new car has to enter a raffle to then get the opportunity to buy it (and will sometimes stay in line for years)."
The regime, he wrote, seems paralyzed. Even critical issues like the water crisis go unaddressed out of fear of public unrest. "Years ago, the government may have had the ability to force certain changes. But this is no longer the case – fearing protests, there is only so much it can push."
He heard stories of angry citizens attacking civil servants going about their day. An electrical engineer at the Ministry of Energy told him that, almost every day, protesters would break into their offices in anger over the power outages. "On two different occasions, someone walked into his room and turned off his AC out of anger."
"During the Khatami era, there was a famous phrase that the government faced one national crisis every nine days. Now it seems that this has flipped, and the government faces 9 crises every day," Talakoubnejad wrote.
"The government and people seem stuck in a position of uncertainty where they are neither fully at peace nor at war. In a sense, the entirety of Iran has been trapped in a 'Groundhog Day' like scenario for two decades, where no matter what we do, we end up in the same place."
War's scars still run deep among Iranians
On the surface, Tehran has survived. The city suffers few visible scars, no vast ruins, and only a handful of empty lots remain where busy buildings once stood. Across the city, some scattered billboards display portraits of slain commanders, but otherwise, not much has changed.But to the keen observer, Talakoubnejad says, the psychological damage runs deep. "In contrast to the physical state of the city, I did see very deep marks left by the war in the psyche of the people." Dozens of Iranians told him they cannot sleep without medication and startle at the sound of loud noises. "A common refrain I heard was people hoping to entirely black out those 12 days from their memory and never have to think about them again," he wrote.
The bombing of Evin Prison in particular seemed to have lasting effects on the community. Talakoubnejad repeatedly heard the story of a girl killed during a visit to her imprisoned father, convicted over an unpaid debt.
Yet many Iranians expressed a reluctant respect for Israel’s calculated restraint. "As a pro-government friend described to me: 'Fighting Israel is not like fighting the Taliban, where they randomly shoot at different parts of the city. They had precise intelligence and weapons. Every single strike was intentional and had a purpose.'"
A quiet revolution in the streets
The most striking changes, he observed, are those that have developed over the course of day-to-day life. Hijab enforcement has nearly disappeared, even in banks and airports. "As a young friend told me, this limited freedom of dress was not something that was granted by the government... it was taken by force, through a very high price, by the people, and will not be given back."He was astonished to see LGBTQ Iranians walking openly in public, transgender people and same-sex couples expressing their identity without fear. Talakoubnejad described seeing an effeminately dressed man wink at another man who turned visibly red and winked back. Even for him, he says, "this was somewhat shocking" and not something he expected to see outside Park Daneshjoo.
As faith in the clerical establishment crumbles, many Iranians are turning toward mystical and unorthodox spiritual practices. From amulets to spells, once orthodox Shia are exploring their spirituality, reflecting the loss of trust in religious authority.
The younger generation, Talakoubnejad wrote, "tend to be terminally online & largely live in the same culture other people their age around the world do." They consume Western pop culture, TV shows, music, tattoos, and no longer hide it. Unlike his generation, he says, which hid parties and relationships from parents, today "kids don’t feel the need to hide any of it."
Despite the hardships, Talakoubnejad believes the transformation underway in Iran is real and unstoppable. "The remarkable thing about this change is that is has come directly from the people – not imposed top down by the state (as has been the case in so much of Iran’s history), nor from foreign powers."
"What makes me the happiest," he added, "is seeing someone dressed without a scarf and in a very Westernized way standing side by side with their best friend who chooses to wear a full hijab and dress traditionally. And there is no tension between them & each chooses to value the other and their choices."
True change, he concluded, will not come from exiled leaders, reformists, or from US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "This change will come from inside, from family settings, and the heart of society itself. This type of change is far more durable and effective than any alternative."
Maariv Online, Anouk Carter-Dorf
Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-872583
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