A British-Iranian doctor has set up a website to help provide medical care for wounded protesters in Iran who may be afraid to go to clinics and hospitals in their country due to fear of reprisals from the government.
Alireza Salehzadeh, who runs his own GP practice south of London, said he set up the symptom-checking service during the protests in January, in which tens of thousands are believed to have been killed in a government crackdown.
The online platform gives advice on topics such as first aid, how to administer CPR and control severe bleeding, as well as signs of delayed complications that can occur two to six weeks after injury.
He told The National it is difficult to tell the situation on the ground in Iran, due to regular communications blackouts.
“We don’t know what is going on. The Basij militia are everyday targeting people. People are not able to access the care they need,” said Dr Salehzadeh.
He shared the link to the symptom-checker with The National, but said he mainly shares it privately with people, hoping it can spread through word of mouth, so as not to have it intercepted by the Iranian regime’s local cyber operations.
Dr Salehzadeh has been advocating for doctors in Iran who have been jailed and in some cases sentenced to death for treating injured protesters.
He was “shocked” in January to hear of Alireza Golchini, a surgeon who faces the death penalty over social media posts in which he urged injured people to come to him for free treatment.
Dr Salehzadeh signed an open letter this week along with other doctors of Iranian origin across Europe and North America, shedding light on the healthcare plights in Iran.
"The Islamic Republic has turned medicine into a tool of repression: denying care to protestors, imprisoning doctors who treat the wounded, and causing countless preventable death," the letter said.
The letter also advocates for Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's last monarch, to lead a transitional democracy in Tehran, but Dr Salihzadeh believes it is up to citizens to elect their future political leaders.
“I joined patriotic doctors to get involved and to get help and recognition of the medical issues in Iran,” Dr Salehzadeh said.
The US-led military intervention in Iran has support from many Iranians in exile, causing divisions with Iranians who oppose it. Dr Salehzadeh said it was clear that people in Iran needed US support, but he also worries about what happens next. “We are worried about how is it going to end? Will we see a better Iran in the end, or will we be more fragmented,” Dr Salehzadeh said.
"I hope to see a peaceful transition, and for the tens of thousands who lost their lives, for that not to have been in vain."
British-Iranian science and tech professionals put their names to another letter in support of Mr Pahlavi on Thursday. They expressed their “full support” for the exiled crown prince, as a “transitional democratic leader”, defying critics who highlight his father’s autocratic rule that led to his overthrow in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“His leadership does not represent a determined political system. Rather it represents a unifying, stabilising and nationally recognised figure capable of co-ordinating a peaceful transition grounded in secular democracy,” the letter said.
"The regime's violent response to the Iranian people's demands for freedom has reinforced a clear reality: a democratic transition is no longer a distant aspiration but an urgent necessity."
The letter was signed by Alireza Rahnama, a tech founder and AI expert, and Kamran Razmdoost, dean of the Hult International Business School, a private university in London, among others.
It asked Iranians “worldwide” to stand with them in “solidarity”. “Our expertise, global presence, and commitment to democratic values give us both a voice and a responsibility,” the letter said.
But large numbers of Iranians in exile oppose the regime without backing Mr Pahlavi. They have expressed deep concerns about the US-led war in Iran.
The British-Iranian former political prisoner Nazenin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, was one of more than 100 Iranians in the UK to warn that the war could strengthen the regime, in an open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday.
“Nobody can claim to want the end of the Islamic republic more than we do,” the letter reported by The Guardian says.
“But attacking the country in this way will have the opposite effect. It will entrench the authoritarians and give life to the fiction that has sustained them internally for decades: that they are fighting western imperialism.”
In particular, some Iranians reject the political backing Mr Pahlavi gets from Israel.
A large meeting in London at the end of March, organised by the newly formed Iran Freedom Congress, aims to bring all opposition groups together.
Dr Salehzadeh was critical of this letter, describing it as "out of place". He said people in Iran needed help resisting the regime, and cited videos on social media that showed Iranians inside the country supporting the US military intervention. “We have to listen to the people of Iran. They’re asking for support,” he said.
