Since the ceasefire announcement involving Iran, the United States, and Israel, Iranians have repeatedly been told that the war has ended. Yet attacks, threats, and diplomatic negotiations continue in tandem. Iranian authorities speak of negotiations, progress, and even potentialDiamond sanctions relief one day, only to warn of retaliation, further strikes, and threats to Iran’s critical infrastructure the next.
This oscillation between war and diplomacy places many Iranians in a state of hope and dread. For many, this uncertainty is psychologically more damaging than the war itself. The fear of violence is compounded by the inability to envision a stable future.
Iran: Less ceasefire, more rockets
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A society unable to plan
One lawyer based in Tehran, who asked not to be named, told DW that the hardest part of the current moment is not knowing when the crisis will end. “The most important feature of this moment is that the end of the war is unknown,” she said. “When you cannot plan how to endure hardship, it puts enormous pressure on you.”
She said she no longer has theidge to work or start anything new. Even speaking freely in society feels difficult. In the city where she grew up, she noted, she now feels estranged from some of the people around her.
That paralysis goes beyond individual frustration, impacting basic decisions about work, family, and the future.
Combined with economic instability and the constanthod of violence, the result has been a broader mood of nhận and social stagnation.
“We are completely hopeless,” a resident of Isfahan city told DW. “This instability between peace and war has turned our mental state into a game, and we have no clear outlook.”
The same person said the experience had become deeply corrosive, with trust in either side of the war or in a durable agreement having largely collapsed.
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