[Sputnik] WHEN CORONAVIRUS CHANGES YOUR LIFE IN A HEARTBEAT: SPUTNIK CORRESPONDENT’S EXPERIENCE IN IRAN

By Samira Esmaili, Sputnik International News Agency and Radio

COVID-19 burst into the life of Sputnik Iran correspondent Samira Esmaili in early March, when she was returning to Moscow after a weekend in Europe. While she was away, the Russian Federation stopped allowing Iranian citizens into the country due to the coronavirus pandemic. Samira was not allowed into the Sheremetyevo Airport, either, even though she hadn’t been to Iran in the past five months and could not possibly be a carrier of the infection. She had to buy a ticket to Tehran and fly to the second worst hit country after China without money, Iranian papers, or a hijab and ... wearing a short skirt. In the grips of the Covid-2019 epidemic, Tehran, with its millions of residents, changed her workdays and everything else in her life. She shares her story here. My name is Samira Esmaiili, and I’m from Iran. For four years now, I have been living in Moscow and working at the Sputnik news agency. In late February, I went to Europe when the coronavirus epidemic reached its peak in China and spread to other countries, but hadn’t reached Europe yet. I went to the Netherlands and the Cologne Carnival in Germany. Back then, no one was worried about the coronavirus, and the cities were full of tourists enjoying themselves, just like me. By the middle of my stay in Europe, 5,000 Covid-2019 patients had already been identified in Iran. I arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on March 1 with the Amsterdam-Moscow flight. Since the last time I visited Iran was five months ago, when the virus was still unheard of, I wasn’t afraid of being infected and didn’t think I would have any problems entering Russia. What a nightmare. At the border checkpoint, a Russian border guard showed me an order banning Iranians from entering the Russian Federation, and said: “As an Iranian citizen, you have a visa. But because there is no coronavirus in Russia, even if you have a visa, you can’t enter the country and must return... to Amsterdam or Iran. ” In an instant, my life was turned upside down. My whole life was in Moscow: university, work, money, basic necessities, valuables ... I just couldn’t believe that in a few hours I would land in Iran with a small suitcase without even a suitable outfit for a Muslim country: in Iran, women are required to wear a headscarf and cover-all baggy clothes. The next morning, I was at the Tehran airport in a short skirt and without a headscarf. To say that the airport staff were surprised is to say nothing. At the airport, I saw that Iranians were wearing face masks and gloves. Only then did I realize that the Covid 2019 epidemic had really swept over my homeland. In Europe, I didn’t see a single person wearing a face mask or gloves. My main problem was that I didn’t have any Iranian ID, an Iranian SIM card, a bank card, or keys to my home in Tehran. I was in for a lot of trouble... For four weeks now, I’ve been quarantined in Tehran and living alone. Because of the coronavirus epidemic, I wasn’t even able to go see my mother in northern Iran. I could never have imagined such a strange trip to Iran. In the past, we always got together with family and friends, but now I’m home alone and can’t see my family, and hug and kiss them. Now I’m working remotely from home. I can say that I’m even enjoying it in a way. I can wear comfortable clothes, even pajamas, drink hot coffee, listen to music and watch the news, though these days, even Sputnik, is mostly covering the pandemic. Working remotely is a really good experience, but being away from my colleagues and the atmosphere at the agency, and cut off from my work buddies is depressing. Here’s what my workday during the lockdown is like: coffee, shower, do some work for Sputnik, cook, have a video call with family and friends, make a dessert, read something in English, write abstracts for my dissertation, watch a movie, knit, plant flowers and do other stuff that I never had the time to do. I think after the lockdown I could work as a chef. Every four days I go out to do some shopping. That’s the way most people are living in Iran now. Like me, they try to stay home as much as possible. Tehran is very quiet and deserted these days. I’ve been living in this version of Tehran for four weeks now. That’s how my journey to Europe turned out. I will remember it for the rest of my life. Hopefully, the day will come when we will all look back at these lockdown weeks and say, we did it. Soheil Ghanbarzadeh, People wearing protective masks during COVID-19 pandemic in Teheran, Iran. Soheil Ghanbarzadeh, People wearing protective masks during COVID-19 pandemic in Teheran, Iran. Soheil Ghanbarzadeh, Sanitary measures during COVID-19 pandemic in Teheran, Iran. Soheil Ghanbarzadeh, Sanitary measures during COVID-19 pandemic in Teheran, Iran.