While Iranians are silenced by the atrocious Iranian regime, parts of the diaspora claim to speak in their name. Between inflation, sanctions, repression, and escalating war rhetoric, people in Iran are being crushed from all sides. Thousands have been killed in the latest wave of mass protests. Voices from within the country warn against foreign intervention, diasporic saviors, and the dangerous illusion that democracy can be imposed from abroad. Marie Thum spoke with an Iranian in the diaspora and a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar about current developments in Iran.
“My biggest worry is the safety of my family. They might face arbitrary arrests, violence, and the complete absence of legal protection”, Bia Maman Jan explains. Having grown up in Iran and coming to Germany in her teenage years, she got a taste of both political systems, whereas one of them leaves her with a bitter aftertaste just by thinking of it.
Sanctions, Inflation, and the Everyday Cost of Survival
The Persian theocracy, governed by 86-year-old longtime theocrat Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the self-proclaimed Supreme Leader of the country, has not only suffered politically, but it has also experienced an economic run-down over the past decade. “The economic crisis affects every aspect of life. Basic necessities like food, electricity, heating, medicine, and hygiene products have become a financial burden”, Jan clarifies. What trickles down is blatant inflation, soaring unemployment, and incessantly climbing prices. Jan’s family is not spared from economic hardship. Remittances from abroad hardly compensate for the depreciation of the Iranian rial. They merely suffice to provide basic goods.
According to New Lines Magazine, a cup of coffee in Iran costs between 50 cents and two U.S. Dollars (December 2025). As reported by Iran International, the dollar value of an average Iranian minimum wage has steadily decreased over the past months, while simultaneously being increased in local currency. Yet, instead of sensing an improvement in working conditions, Iranian wage earners have roughly $100 minimum wage at their disposal. Looking at an average coffee price, it dawns on one that proportionality, in terms of consumption and income, has totally gone askew. Even increases in the minimum wage in local currency cannot keep pace with rapid inflation, which has caused the Iranian rial to depreciate sharply – to the point where one rial is practically worthless in euro terms.
This not only casts a dark shadow over a stagnant job market; it also clearly exposes economic mismanagement and failures in fiscal policy. “My family’s financial situation has become unbearable in recent years due to corruption, sanctions, mismanagement, and systemic failures.” Jan holds the government and its corrupt leadership responsible for the dire living conditions in her homeland.
Indeed, Western sanctions on Iran have not only targeted Tehran’s theocratic regime; they have first and foremost deprived Iranian citizens of the ability to participate in an open economy and to benefit from the foreign exchange market. As international banking systems cannot be used to transfer funds to Iranian bank accounts, many Iranians depend on special money-transfer services to receive remittances.
Mehran Kamrava, Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar and an Iranian citizen himself, describes Western sanctions as unjust and ineffective.
“Sanctions have disempowered Iran’s middle class and have, in fact, enriched the Revolutionary Guard,” he argues. That the current economic crisis has slipped entirely out of the clerical regime’s control comes as no surprise. As Professor Kamrava puts it, “Iran has a lousy crisis-management capacity.” The regime lacks the expertise to approach critical events in a strategic and sustainable manner. This failure of domestic governance increasingly drives Iranians into the hands of foreign global actors who promise assistance. Kamrava, however, explicitly opposes any inclination toward sympathising with foreign intervention. He warns that the further disempowerment of the middle class would be one of the most severe consequences of a foreign military intervention in an economy of nearly 90 million people.
“Iranians want solidarity, not saviors.”
What was repeatedly announced by U.S. President Donald Trump—namely, a military attack aimed at toppling Ayatollah Khamenei’s murderous regime—would constitute yet another violation of Iranian sovereignty, according to the American-Iranian scholar. Kamrava also criticizes diasporic voices that claim to speak on behalf of Iranians inside the country. The expert on Iranian foreign policy warns that “there is an absolute dissonance of understanding between the Iranian diaspora and the Iranians in the country.” What distinguishes those who realistically assess Iran’s current socio-political situation from those driven by wishful thinking and imagination, Kamrava argues, ultimately comes down to their social base. Many members of the Iranian diaspora, whose social and political lives are firmly rooted in their countries of residence, are increasingly disconnected from relatives, friends, and ongoing political realities inside Iran. Kamrava, therefore, concludes that calls for the return of an Israel-backed Iranian crown prince and opposition figure, Reza Pahlavi, largely originate from segments of the diaspora with little or no remaining social base inside Iran.
Kamrava, therefore, argues that Iranians should be allowed to resolve their own problems, which he sees as the only viable path toward political sovereignty and economic recovery. In line with this view, Bia Maman Jan, who regularly visits her family in Iran, agrees: “Democracy cannot be imposed from the outside. What we need is diplomatic pressure, support for civil society, protection for protesters, and recognition of the Iranian people’s right to self-determination.”
In the face of the current inaction of international organizations and humanitarian actors, cries for help echo unheard across the international arena. As Jan succinctly puts it, “Iranians want solidarity, not saviors.” This sentiment stands in stark contrast to diasporic demands to install Reza Pahlavi – the purported “savior” of the Iranian nation – as a successor to the incumbent clerical regime. Many in the diaspora believe the exiled crown prince could represent a “Western liberal” light at the end of the tunnel of clerical tyranny. However, rather than reflecting the will of the broader Iranian population, such demands must be understood against the backdrop of the diaspora’s growing social disconnection from Iranians on the ground.
It is the responsibility of the international order to provide Iranians with resources and know-how that enable self-help. Foreign intervention, as well as sheer negligence by international organizations, only further escalates an already glaring crisis. As Jan concludes, “Iran is a rich country with a deeply educated, creative, and resilient population. The poverty we see today is not natural; it is preventable. It is not a religious issue. It is a human rights issue.” A near-total communications shutdown over the past three weeks has blanketed the regime’s atrocities and human rights violations like a shroud. Silence is not neutral – it signals indifference, negligence, carelessness, and egocentrism. Silence becomes an active contribution to the regime’s brutal obscuring of murder and torture, whether physical or psychological.
It is within the power of the Iranian diaspora to amplify their people’s voices accurately – not to demand pity or outrage, but to assert basic universal rights such as civil liberties, justice, and the right to live with dignity.
Wird geladen ...
