Inserts:

00:03 Report / Carolina Machhaus-Stehle
00:17 Shabnam Fahimi-Weber / ENT specialist
00:34 Shahin Arzani / Pharmacist
00:49 Shabnam Fahimi-Weber / ENT specialist
01:14 Shabnam Fahimi-Weber / ENT specialist

Script:

Wounded Iranian protesters receive medical advice from these women from thousands of kilometers away.

They belong to the Parsi Med network - Iranian physicians, psychologists and pharmacists - living in Germany offering help to people back in Iran digitally.

+++SOT Shabnam Fahimi-Weber, ENT specialist : I receive up‑to‑date X‑rays of facial injuries and fractures and have to assess them. But we also get calls like, ‘This cartridge is lodged here—what do I need to do?’ Often, these are people who have little to no experience with medical care.+++ 

+++SOT Shahin Arzani, Pharmacist: It’s like a war situation. You try to use whatever you have on hand—even the clothes you’re wearing—as makeshift bandages in order to treat people.+++ (also wie eine Kriegszustand.Und versucht man mit alles was man hat gerade was auch an Leib hat, dann als Verbandsmaterial zu benutzen, sondern zu behandeln.)

Reports claim that at least 5,000 people have been killed in the recent protests, some sources even say more than 16,000 are dead. Source: The Sunday Times

+++SOT Fahimi-Weber: You can’t simply go to a hospital or any emergency clinic, because that would immediately make it obvious that these people took part in a demonstration—and then they’re in even greater danger of being killed. It’s like they say: ‘We didn’t catch you on the street, so now we’re taking you with us.’ +++

The internet in Iran has been blocked since early January. Doctors, injured protesters, and their relatives are communicating via satellite connections.

+++SOT Shabnam Fahimi Weber: This internet connection isn’t just important for us—it’s crucial so that people in Iran can communicate with one another again. Beyond medical care, they need a human connection to comfort each other. When that connection is taken away, it amounts to terrorism at the highest level against the country’s own population.

With the internet cut off the Parsi Med network remains a vital lifeline for people still in Iran.