For most of 2026, the people of Iran have been subject to a near-total communications blackout, with access to the internet and telephone lines extremely limited.
It’s a “mindblowing” situation, says Irish-based Iranian, Mahya Ostovar, who describes how people are “getting arrested over their phones being searched”.
“They have checkpoints in the street, stopping and searching cars, searching the phones of people [to see] if they have access to the internet or if they are on WhatsApp or Telegram… or if they’re following Instagram accounts that are political,” she explains on the latest episode of The Women’s Podcast.
The communications shutdown first began in early January, as the Iranian government responded to anti-regime protests sweeping across the country. Nearly four months on, the blackout continues, with the war in the Middle East exacerbating the situation for the population.
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“Imagine that during war time, during extreme repression, you have no access to the internet. You have no access to reliable information,” Ostovar tells podcast presenter Róisín Ingle.
“I don’t know how the Islamic Republic has been so successful in normalising the fact that they can just cut off the internet. This is not normal. This doesn’t happen in any normal country,” she adds.
“We have loved ones inside the country. They cannot easily contact us. They couldn’t call us without fearing surveillance”.
As fraught negotiations continue over how to reach a peace agreement in the Middle East, Ostovar says the discussions are consistently missing one key element, instead focusing on the tensions over the Strait of Hormuz or Iran’s nuclear capabilities
“There is no mention of Iranian lives…as if Iranians don’t exist and don’t matter,” the Galway-based activist tells Ingle.
It is these voices and the experiences of ordinary Iranians that Ostovar and her fellow activist Nasim Soleimanian want to amplify. As a result, they have set up the Iranian Democratic Diaspora Network in Ireland (IDDNI).
In today’s episode, the pair join Róisín Ingle to discuss the goals of IDDNI, what they are hearing from friends and family in Iran and their long-held hopes for a secular democracy and a peaceful future for their country.
You can listen back to this episode in the player above or search The Women’s Podcast on your usual podcast app.
