Subscribe to trusted local news
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
12
Jan
Harrogate dentist worries for family in Iran as communications are cut
An Iranian woman living in Harrogate is urging people in the district to support her home country as protesters there demand an end to its current regime.
Dr Shoreh Ghasmi, who runs the Harrogate Dental Clinic on Prospect Crescent, left Iran following its Islamic Revolution in 1979, but many of her family members – including five siblings and their children – still live there.
She told the Stray Ferret:
The Iranian government has shut down the electricity, the water, there’s no telephone, no internet – nothing – so I can't contact my family at all.
I’m crazy worried about them all. All my family go out protesting every night from 8pm, and I’m not sure if they’re all still alive or not. I don’t know if they’ve been shot.
Reports from inside Iran suggest that more than 500 people have been killed in clashes with government security forces over the last fortnight, although protesters and human rights groups fear the total may be far higher.
Dr Ghasmi tried calling her brother in Iran when she visited the Stray Ferret’s offices today. After several seconds of dialling tone, an English-accented AI voice said:
Hello? Hello? I can’t heard [sic] you.
Emails receive no reply and Whatsapp messages remain unopened.
Dr Ghasmi said:
God knows how many times I’ve tried calling – a minimum of five or six times every day – but it’s always the same. They don’t want news to get out.
Dr Ghasmi has not been able to contact her family since last week.
Mass demonstrations in Iran were initially sparked by frustration over the economic crisis besetting the country: economic sanctions imposed by the West are biting, inflation is running at over 40%, and the currency is weak. Five years ago, a pound could buy about 57,000 Iranian rials; now it buys more than 1.3 million.
Since unrest started, sentiment has deepened and protesters are now calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
Dr Ghasmi, who lived in Sweden before moving to Harrogate 17 years ago, returned last week from Iran after a two-week visit, stopping at four cities: Tehran, Arak, Ghazvin and Noshahr.
She said:
The protests started almost as soon as I got there – there were thousands of people out on the streets.
There have been protests in Iran before, but it’s different this time. When I visited once before, I had to wear a headscarf, but this time, 90% of women weren’t wearing one, especially in Tehran and Noshahr. People really want change, and they’re chanting Trump’s name.
US President Donald Trump has previously said the US will come to the protesters’ defence if the regime clamps down on them with lethal force.
Dr Ghasmi said that if the regime did fall, she would “100%” go back to Iran. She added:
I think every Iranian would go back. We’ve created a life here, but it’s not home.
Iran is a wonderful country, educated and civilised – women had equal rights there before they did in Europe – but it has fallen a hundred years behind. When I was there, there was the same hospitality, the same generosity, even though people are struggling.
I just want to raise awareness, so that people here will know what we’re going through and support us. They can do that on social media and even write to their MP asking for his support.
I just want our country to bloom again.
0