The war in Iran has horrified many inside the country, but some worry that peace could be just as frightening. 'I am shit-scared,' Shaghayeh, a 32-year-old living in Tehran, told me last week. 'But I won't cheer if the war ends now. You want to leave us alone with Mojtaba'' Shaghayeh, a left-wing activist, was referring to the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, whose regime continues to impose a near-total internet blackout. Contacting anyone within Iran's borders is a challenge, but I have managed to speak with more than a dozen people over the past three weeks. (To protect their safety, I am referring to them by pseudonyms.) I was struck by how many people in Iran expressed the same paradox: They fear the continuation of the war, yet they also fear its end. Iran is a country of 90 million people, and I can't claim that the ones I spoke with are representative. But very few of them told me they were content with their lives before the war. At first, some saw America and Israel's...
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