As the United States and Israel complete a fifth week of war with Iran, some 93 million civilians living in Iran are stuck in a conflict zone without a missile warning system or missile warning system. Internet access. Another four million people of Iranian origin around the world are cut off from friends and family still 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.
The app is named after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman. died in 2022 after an arrest by the Iranian “morality police”. This group regularly detains women who it says are not respecting the country’s laws on compulsory veiling. His death became the trigger for widespread protests after decades of oppression. Amini’s image is now a symbol of what has come to be known as the Women, Life, Freedom movement.
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Holistic Resilience said it recognized for the first time the lack of protection of civilians during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025.
Millions of civilians living in Iran are stuck in a conflict zone, without missile warning systems or access to the Internet. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“They are checking the surroundings of their loved ones’ neighborhoods to make sure there is no place that could potentially be the target of these strikes and telling 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 per day for validity and accuracy. These reports can take the form of social networks videos or photos or messages on Telegram. They also map the locations of some 18,000 CCTV cameras across the country.
As the 17th largest country in the world by area, Iran presents a significant mapping challenge.
“We have to be ready to immediately release this notification. The last one was, I guess, in the middle of the night,” Ahmadian said. “I have colleagues who work almost 16 hours on this project. We have self-funded this project from the beginning and we have never stopped doing it despite all the challenges. The reason is that it is something that people need and it saves lives.”
Internet connectivity in Iran is estimated at less than 1%. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
Iranian guards recruit children as young as 12 and put them on the front lines of the war
The Israeli military occasionally posts evacuation notices on its Farsi-language X account. A previous post from the account contains warnings such as: “In the coming hours, the IDF will operate in the area, as it has in recent days in Tehran, to strike the Iranian regime’s military infrastructure. For your safety and well-being, we ask that you immediately leave the area indicated on the map.
With internet connectivity in Iran estimated at less than 1%, Israeli evacuation notices often fail to reach the civilians they are supposed to help.
Civilians evacuating to towns they do not know can use the Mahsa Alert app as an essential lifeline, identifying hospitals, blood banks, government checkpoints or offline shelters.
“We realized that if people start moving and being displaced, they need to see the essentials, the essential places,” Ahmadian said.
The Iranian government prioritizes its goals beyond its borders over its own people, according to Holistic Resilience.
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“Instead of sirens sending crisis alerts to the mass population, they send SMS messages every day from the Ministry of Intelligence threatening people, [saying] if you share information with others, we will know and we will prosecute you,” Ahmadian said.
As the 17th largest country in the world by area, Iran presents a significant mapping challenge. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The government has accused those who provide information to the platform of acting as Israeli spies or collecting intelligence for the US military. The group has been attacked by the Iranian government, both through hacking and deliberate sending of disinformation aimed at undermining the group’s credibility. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 reported a widespread increase in cyberthreat activity from Iranian actors since the conflict began in late February.
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In one case, Ahmadian said a report claimed missiles were being launched from a specific building, which the group later identified as a girls’ dormitory at a university. He added that the group believed this information may have been intended to deceive targeting, thereby giving the Iranian government ammunition for its anti-Israel and anti-U.S. media campaign, although this could not be independently verified by FOX Business.
“By increasing the number of civilian casualties, they are fueling their propaganda war,” Ahmadian said. “This is not our war. This has never been our war.”