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As the US and Israel are in the fifth week of war with Iran, about 93 million civilians living inside Iran are trapped in the conflict zone without a missile warning system or Internet access. Another 4 million people of Iranian origin around the world are still cut off from their friends and family in Iran.
While the Islamic Republic has left its own people in the dark, Holistic Resilience, a group of engineers focused on internet freedom, is using an app called Mahsa Alert to light the way.
This app is named after 22 year old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini. who died in 2022 Following his arrest by Iran’s “morality police”. The group regularly detains women they believe do not comply with the country’s mandatory hair-covering laws. His death became the inspiration for widespread protests after decades of persecution. Amini’s image is now a symbol of what is known as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
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Holistic Resilience said it first identified the lack of civilian protection during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025.
Millions of civilians living inside Iran are trapped in the conflict zone without missile warning systems or access to the internet. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“They are checking their loved ones’ neighborhoods to make sure there are no locations that could potentially be the target of these attacks and to inform them to stay away from them,” said Ahmad Ahmadian, executive director of Holistic Resilience.
Using crowdsourcing and open-source intelligence, volunteers analyze approximately 100 tips daily for validity and accuracy. These reports may come in the form of social media videos or photos or messages on Telegram. They also map the location of approximately 18,000 CCTV cameras across the country.
As the world’s 17th largest country by area, Iran presents a significant mapping challenge.
“We have to be able to issue that notification immediately. The last notification, I think, was at midnight,” Ahmadian said. “I have colleagues who are working almost 16-hour days on this project. We’ve been self-funding this project since the beginning, and we never stopped doing that despite all the challenges. The reason is because it’s something that people should have and it saves lives.”
Internet connectivity in Iran is estimated to be less than 1%. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
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The Israel Defense Forces occasionally posts evacuation notices on its Persian-language X account. Previous posts from the account featured warnings like this: “In the coming hours, the IDF will operate in this area, as it has done in recent days in Tehran, to attack the military infrastructure of the Iranian regime. For your safety and well-being, we urge you to immediately leave the area indicated on the map.”
Internet connectivity in Iran is estimated to be less than 1%, with Israeli evacuation notices often failing to reach the citizens they are intended to assist.
Citizens who move to towns or cities with which they are unfamiliar can use mahsa alert app Identifying hospitals, blood banks, government posts or shelters while offline, as a vital lifeline.
“We realized, OK, if people start moving and getting displaced, they need to see essential things, essential spaces,” Ahmadian said.
According to Holistic Resilience, the Iranian government is prioritizing its objectives beyond its borders over its own people.
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Ahmadian said, “Instead of sirens warning the population at large of the crisis, they are sending text messages from the Intelligence Ministry every day threatening people, (saying) that if you share information with others, we will know about it and we will come after you.”
As the world’s 17th largest country by area, Iran presents a significant mapping challenge. (Morteza Nicoubzal/Nurfoto via Getty Images)
The government has accused those who volunteered information on the platform of working as Israeli spies or gathering intelligence for the US military. The group has been attacked by the Iranian government, both through hacking and deliberate sending of misinformation to undermine the group’s credibility. Unit 42 of Palo Alto Networks A widespread increase in cyber threat activity by Iranian actors has been reported since the conflict began in late February.
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In one example, Ahmadian said that a tip-off purported that missiles were being launched from a specific building, which the group later identified as a girls’ dormitory at a university. He said the group believed the tip may have been intended to mislead the target, giving the Iranian government ammunition for its anti-Israel and anti-US media campaign, although this could not be independently verified by Fox Business.
“By increasing civilian casualties, they are increasing their propaganda war,” Ahmadian said. “This is not our war. This has never been our war.”
