Iran’s internet shutdown muddies global efforts to track damage to historical sites

Just a few decades in, the 21st century has witnessed acts of breathtaking cultural destruction across West Asia, from Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Buddhas to ancient sites in Iraq and Syria. Now, Iran, another country rich in historical and archaeological sites, is under attack, with U.S. and Israeli bombs obliterating military targets and infrastructure and killing the country’s leaders, along with nearby civilians. But because the Iranian government has largely blocked the internet, reports of damage to cultural heritage sites are scarce. “Even if I were to call up the Tehran museum director I know, he probably couldn’t say anything,” says Michael Danti, a near eastern archaeologist and director of the Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program at the University of Pennsylvania. But according to the country’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, at least 56 cultural sites, monuments, and museums have been damaged since U.S. and Israeli attacks began on 28 February. Central Tehran’s Golestan Palace—an ornate, 18th century fusion of Persian and European design—suffered broken windows, mirrors, and doors from air blasts and debris from Israeli and U.S. missiles. Social media posts also show fallen ceilings and shattered glass within the Sa’dabad Complex in northern Tehran, a cluster of palaces and museums established by the Qajar shahs in the early 19th century. Southwest of Tehran, a nearby missile blast damaged the third century Shapur Khast Castle in Khorramabad and injured five museum employees, according to Iranian reports. And in the city of Isfahan—whose underground nuclear laboratories reportedly house some 60% of the country’s enriched uranium—provincial authorities say 21 cultural sites have taken damage, including the 17th century Chehel Sotoun Palace, famed for its frescoes, and the Masjed-e Jāmé, Iran’s oldest Friday mosque. Then there’s the damage to countless urban sites. “Most of these towns that we’re bombing are filled with historic houses and a lot of other cultural heritage that flies under the radar,” Danti says. So far all of the damage appears to be collateral—in part because heritage organizations have learned the importance of preparedness from other recent conflicts. As war broke out in the Persian Gulf, UNESCO sent all warring parties the geographic coordinates of Iranian heritage sites designated for protection, including Golestan Palace. Iran is also taking measures to protect its moveable heritage, including boxing up museum items for safekeeping and installing the Blue Shield logo–designed to indicate protected heritage–on more than 100 cultural monuments. “[T]here is a proactive attitude from the local experts and the local heritage workers, to protect the movable [artifacts],” says Alessandra Peruzzetto, the World Monument Fund’s senior regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. But limited access to on-the-ground reporting and satellite imagery has hamstrung independent verification of damage, says Patty Gerstenblith, a professor of law at DePaul University and chair of the Blue Shield International Working Group on Countering Trafficking of Cultural Objects. Peruzzetto is keeping tabs as best she can, scouring official Iranian websites and social media accounts for photos and videos of damage. Making matters worse, decades of sanctions have left Iran academically isolated, with fewer trusted connections existing between Iranian scholars and the global research community. “Even though there were sanctions on Iraq, still, you’d go to a conference, particularly in Europe, and there’d be Iraqi archaeologists and scholars there,” says Gerstenblith, who also serves as president of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield. That’s not the case in Iran. It is unclear whether Israel and the United States are trying to avoid directly damaging Iranian heritage sites, but U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb them before. Following the U.S. assassination of the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in January 2020, Trump wrote in a social media post that “if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have … targeted 52 Iranian sites … some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.” U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently said the traditional rules of engagement in war—which include the protection of heritage sites—were “stupid.” For Gerstenblith, the implication that such rules might now be ignored is “deeply troubling.” She notes that in previous conflicts, such as the 2003 Iraq War, there was at least some recognition of the importance of protecting cultural heritage. Although mistakes were made, there was no outright dismissal of the laws of armed conflict. The U.S., Israel, and Iran are all parties to the 1954 Hague convention, which requires that cultural sites be protected during conflict. Iran’s best known UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the ancient Persian capitals of Persepolis and Pasargadae, are at low risk of collateral damage, as both sites are far away from military installations. But others are in the thick of the conflict. Elements of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard are known to locate themselves near heritage sites, under the belief that the U.S. and Israel will deliberately avoid attacking these monuments—a restraint that Ali Mousavi, a Pourdavoud research scholar and adjunct assistant professor of Iranian archaeology in the University of California, Los Angeles’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, urges the countries to maintain. “There is no excuse for bombing a monument, a mosque, or a caravanserai under the pretext that there is a sort of military camp there,” he says. “There’s no excuse.” And as bombs continue to fall on Iran, experts are also resigned to an uptick in looting of archaeological sites across the country. “Whenever there’s a spate of insecurity [or] instability in Iran, there’s a big increase in archaeological looting,” Danti says. There’s plenty of it already going on … but it’s going to get a lot worse.” Heritage experts are also mourning the impact of war on their Iranian colleagues. “My position in this war is that damages to cultural heritage sites are limited compared to human casualties and destruction of Iran's infrastructures,” Mousavi says. Peruzzetto thinks the country’s heritage will help sustain it through the turmoil. The country recently celebrated the ancient new year holiday of Nowruz, a pre-Islamic tradition that has survived the mullahs. Iranians “are really strong on their cultural heritage,” she says. “I hope it will also bring peace.”