Northwestern professor and her family shelter in place in Qatar amidst Iranian airstrikes

Christina Paschyn was at a dance class for her six-year-old daughter on Saturday in Doha, Qatar when she received a notification from the U.S. State Department that Israel had attacked Iran and she needed to shelter in place.

"We got the message, all of us grabbed our kids and basically made a dash to our Ubers or our cars to get home," Paschyn said. "And basically, from that point on, that's when the missile strikes started to occur."

On Saturday, after the U.S. and Israel launched a major attack on Iran the Qatari government began intercepting Iranian missiles above Doha. Following this, the U.S. Embassy in Doha issued a shelter-in-place order for personnel and recommended that all Americans do the same.

Since then Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have closed their airspace, causing disruptions at airports across the Middle East as many attempt to leave the escalating conflict. On Monday, the State Department updated its travel advisory for Qatar ordering non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members to leave Qatar due to the threat of armed conflict.

Paschyn has been hunkering down in her Doha home with her husband, six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son as the Qatari government continues to intercept Iranian missiles.

In the first days after the initial strikes, she said she told her children the rumbling they heard was just a bad thunderstorm, and that they had to stay inside. They believed it at first, she said. But after days of no rain they grew skeptical. On Monday, she said she told her kids countries are fighting with "fireworks."

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For the past 15 years, Paschyn has been an associate professor at Northwestern University in Qatar teaching journalism. Since the strikes began on Saturday, the university has shifted to online classes, she said.

While the university has an official evacuation protocol to keep its community members safe, she said it's unclear at what point they would be evacuated. Northwestern University in Qatar didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Paschyn, a Ukrainian-American, filmed a documentary in Ukraine in 2024 examining the full-scale conflict through the eyes of Ukrainians attempting to survive the war.

"I learned all the tips and tricks to stay safe there, and we're applying that here now," she said.

In the meantime, she said she's continuing to teach her students virtually and living in "constant paranoia" as the sound of intercepted missiles explode throughout the night.

"What's interesting is that we do not have any air raid sirens that come on in the loudspeakers around the city," she said. "The most we get is these emergency texts from the Qatari government on our phones. We haven't received them, though in at least 24 hours."

During airstrikes, Paschyn said people have been told to go underground and stay away from windows. If unable to do that, they've been told to go to the lowest level of their homes and place curtains in front of windows to cushion the blow from possible debris. Her family's home, however, doesn't have a basement, and it has floor-to-ceiling windows.

"Whenever we get a phone alert, we hide in the pantry because it's the only really enclosed space without any windows," she said.

Most explosions and alerts happen overnight, she added. To preserve a sense of normalcy, she's keeping up the kids' nightly bedtime routine, putting them to sleep in their own beds. But then, in the middle of the night she and her husband move the children into their bedroom to keep everyone together. That way, if an alert comes through it's easier for them to all move to the pantry quickly, Paschyn said.

"You kind of just have to estimate whether it's worth running down the stairs or not at this point, but that's how we're trying to keep them safe," she said.

Paschyn and her husband continue to weigh all of their options. At this time, her family is planning to stay in Doha because of guidance from Northwestern. But as the conflict continues, she said that might change.

The family has filled up their car with gas, packed a small bag and applied for visas in Saudi Arabia, "just in case" they decide to make the eight-hour drive, she said.