Iran’s headline-grabbing stories in the past several weeks about the assassination of a top nuclear scientist, the raging coronavirus pandemic and soaring prices have overshadowed the shocking scene of an isolated shanty house being razed to the ground before the eyes of its poverty-stricken dwellers.

On Nov. 19, municipal workers of the city of Bandar Abbas demolished the tiny shelter of 35-year-old Tayyebeh amid desperate pleas among the wreckage from her three children, one of them disabled. The shack also housed Tayyebeh’s sister-in-law, another single mother, and her son. Captured on a mobile phone, the scene shocked ordinary Iranians, who are themselves already struggling for a decent life in the face of the worst economic conditions in their recent memory.

The shanty, which looked barely eight square meters, was too wobbly to need bulldozing, and the agents destroyed it with their bare hands. The demolition was too much to bear, driving Tayyebeh to attempt suicide by self-immolation. She survived and is currently receiving treatment for her burns at a hospital in Bandar Abbas.

The immediate public backlash, a mix of solidarity with the survivor and furious criticism against the government, forced local authorities to visit the woman at the hospital where they promised to pay for her treatment. Nonetheless, the scene was interpreted as propaganda to soothe the widespread anger.