Could Iran’s ‘sadistic’ regime still collapse from within? NATALIE LISBONA shares haunting stories from those trapped inside the country as fury at the Ayatollahs nears ‘boiling point’

In a special section Daily Mail’s Deep Dive podcastMiddle East Correspondent Natalie Lisbona and Chief Foreign Correspondent Andy Jehring share stories from inside a teetering Islamic Republic.

Lisbona and Jehring collaborated on a recent investigation for the Daily Mail in which correspondence was shared with ordinary people living in Iran.

These brave men and women, who were anonymised in the article for their own safety, paint a picture of a society governed by “pure oppression” where public executions, sexual violence and state surveillance are a daily occurrence, Lisbona said.

The regime’s repression has worsened since mass protests swept the country in late December and January. On January 8 and 9, the bloodiest 48 hours of the crackdown, more than 30,000 protest-related deaths were recorded in civilian hospitals.

“They talk about a country where you are constantly being watched,” Lisbon said, describing what his sources told him about life six months after the massacre.

‘You are not allowed to convert to Christianity. There are public executions. An Iranian dissident told me that when they watched The Handmaid’s Tale, they felt that the film was based in Iran.

I have heard many stories of sexual violence by ‘Basij’ [the regime’s militia].

‘The government controls everything. Authorities can shut down the internet whenever they want. ‘Many don’t know where their families are.’

Reporting on these horrors is made more difficult by disinformation, another dimension of the regime’s repression, Jehring said.

He explained that the Islamic Republic has weaponized artificial intelligence and used it to confuse the world’s media and intimidate its own people.

He said: ‘We’ve had some very stressful moments trying to make sure we don’t repeat regime propaganda… the way it works is so interesting and disturbing.

‘They actually released AI-generated images of people who were not actually sentenced to death row as a sort of scare tactic.’

Elsewhere in the podcast, Lisbon said some of the Iranians he spoke to were ‘very disappointed’ that Washington had chosen to make a deal with the Islamic Republic rather than its stated goal of regime change.

President Donald Trump promised protesters in January that “help is on the way.” When Operation Epic Rage was launched in February, Lisbona said her sources were ‘overjoyed’.

Lisbona said some Iranians he spoke to felt “huge disappointment” that Washington chose to make a deal with the Islamic Republic.

But the Islamic Republic appears likely to survive the conflict, as it has leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, and which serves as a bargaining chip.

‘[The Iranians] “I felt really alone,” Lisbona said.

‘But they are very determined. ‘This won’t stop us,’ they say.

‘Everyone I’ve talked to… says something is definitely going to happen. ‘It’s only a matter of time before people get very angry.’

Listen to the full episode now by searching for Deep Dive wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Thursday.