{"id":395670,"date":"2026-01-06T16:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T16:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395670\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T16:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T16:51:09","slug":"neither-gaza-nor-lebanon-iranian-unrest-is-about-more-than-the-economy-%e2%88%92-protesters-reject-the-islamic-republics-whole-rationale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395670\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Neither Gaza nor Lebanon!\u2019 Iranian unrest is about more than the economy \u2212 protesters reject the Islamic Republic\u2019s whole rationale"},"content":{"rendered":"

A familiar slogan has echoed through the streets of various<\/a> Iranian cities<\/a> in recent days: \u201cNeither Gaza nor Lebanon, I sacrifice my life for Iran.\u201d <\/p>\n

That phrase has been chanted at protests that have sprung up around Iran since Dec. 28, 2025<\/a>. The spark of the uprising and bazaar strikes<\/a> has been economic hardship and government mismanagement.<\/p>\n

But as an expert of Iranian history and culture<\/a>, I believe the slogan\u2019s presence signals that protests go deeper than economic frustration alone. When people in Iran chant \u201cNeither Gaza nor Lebanon,\u201d they are, I believe, rejecting the theocratic system in Iran entirely. In other words, the current crisis isn\u2019t just about bread and jobs, it\u2019s about who decides what Iran stands for.<\/p>\n

The origins of the slogan<\/p>\n

The phrase \u201cNeither Gaza nor Lebanon, I sacrifice my life for Iran\u201d first gained prominence during the 2009 Green Movement<\/a>, when hundreds of thousands of people protested a disputed presidential election in Iran. <\/p>\n

It has since appeared in successive major demonstrations, from the 2017-18 economic protests<\/a> to the 2019 fuel price uprising<\/a>. It was also prominent during the 2022 \u201cWomen, Life, Freedom\u201d movement<\/a>, sparked by the death of an Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini<\/a>, following her detention by Iran\u2019s morality police for not wearing a \u201cproper\u201d hijab.<\/p>\n

The phrase ties together two key aspects of successive Iranian protest movements: domestic economic, political or social grievances and an explicit rejection of the government\u2019s justification for that hardship \u2013 namely, that sacrifice at home is necessary to fulfill ideological goals of \u201cresistance\u201d abroad.<\/p>\n

In particular, the slogan targets the Islamic Republic\u2019s decades-long support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Estimates suggest that the regime has channeled between US$700 million<\/a> and $1 billion<\/a> annually to regional allies since the 1980s \u2013 funds that many Iranians argue should instead address domestic infrastructure, health care and education.<\/p>\n

From alliance to resentment<\/p>\n

Understanding the full meaning of the slogan requires historical context. Under the U.S.-aligned Pahlavi monarchy<\/a>, which ruled from 1925 to 1979, Iran maintained diplomatic and economic ties with Israel while pursuing modernization. <\/p>\n

The Shah\u2019s opponents, particularly leftist groups, exploited these connections, using slogans like \u201cIran\u2019s become Palestine, why sit still, O people?\u201d to mobilize against the monarchy. <\/p>\n

Indeed, many of the Islamic revolutionary leaders that ousted the Shah in 1979<\/a> had ties with Palestinian groups.<\/p>\n

After the revolution, the Islamic Republic inverted both its ties to the U.S. and Iran\u2019s relationship with Israel, making anti-Israel rhetoric and support for Palestinian causes central to its identity. <\/p>\n

Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, declared solidarity with oppressed Muslims worldwide, positioning Iran as the vanguard of resistance against what he called<\/a> \u201cWestern imperialism and Zionism.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this ideological commitment came with substantial costs for Iranians. <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s support for Hezbollah during Lebanon\u2019s civil war<\/a>, its backing of Hamas<\/a> in the Palestinian group\u2019s fight against Israel, and its involvement in Syrian and Iraqi conflicts have contributed to international sanctions, diplomatic isolation and economic pressure on Iran. And these burdens have fallen disproportionately on ordinary citizens rather than the ruling elite.<\/p>\n

Economic crisis and political defiance<\/p>\n

\u201cDown with the Islamic Republic\u201d is also chanted alongside \u201cNeither Gaza nor Lebanon\u201d in the current uprising \u2013 the most serious that the Iranian government has faced in years. <\/p>\n

But neither lethal force \u2013 at least 1,203 arrests and more than two dozen deaths<\/a> thus far \u2013 nor supreme leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s Jan. 3 order for a harsher crackdown has quelled the unrest.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in Tehran on Jan. 3, 2026.
\n Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, protests have expanded<\/a> to 110 cities and villages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations illustrate how economic and political grievances intersect in Iran. When demonstrators chant \u201cNeither Gaza nor Lebanon\u201d while protesting bread prices and unemployment, they are not compartmentalizing issues \u2013 they are drawing a direct line between foreign policy choices and domestic suffering.<\/p>\n

The slogan makes three simultaneous arguments.<\/p>\n

First, it rejects imposed solidarity. Many Iranians, including those sympathetic to Palestinian rights, resent being conscripted into conflicts that are not their own. And the government\u2019s insistence that Iranians must make sacrifices for distant causes breeds resentment rather than unity. Take the government\u2019s effort to portray the 12-day war with Israel in June 2025 as a moment of national resistance. Rather, many Iranians instead blamed the leadership<\/a> for either provoking the conflict or failing to meaningfully defend the country from Israeli \u2013 or American \u2013 bombs.<\/p>\n

The slogan also demands accountability for resource allocation. When state media broadcasts funerals for fighters killed<\/a> in Syria or Yemen while Iran\u2019s hospitals lack basic supplies<\/a>, the disconnect between rhetoric and reality becomes glaring.<\/p>\n

And finally, the protest message reclaims political belonging rooted in Iranian national history \u2013 and not just the ideological concerns of the Islamic Republic. By invoking Iran specifically, \u201cI sacrifice my life for Iran,\u201d protesters assert that their primary allegiance is to their own country, not to transnational ideological movements, regional proxies or the ruling government\u2019s ideology. <\/p>\n

The limits of solidarity<\/p>\n

For all its longevity, however, the slogan has proven divisive. While some see it as a necessary assertion of self-determination after decades of enforced sacrifice, others \u2013 including some Iranian leftist intellectuals and activists \u2013 view it as abandoning solidarity with oppressed peoples.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t need to be an either\/or. Many protesters risking bullets to demand \u201cIran first\u201d are not expressing indifference to the suffering of Palestinians. Rather, they are insisting that effective solidarity requires a functioning state capable of supporting its own citizens, and that genuine liberation begins at home.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the Islamic Republic\u2019s response has been to frame criticism as betrayal<\/a>, suggesting that those who question support for Gaza or Lebanon are complicit with imperialism \u2013 a narrative enforced through a mix of rhetoric and coercion.<\/p>\n

But this framing increasingly fails to persuade a population that has watched living standards decline<\/a> while billions of dollars flow to foreign conflicts. The effects of sanctions and shrinking foreign-currency revenues have pushed the Iranian state to raise taxes on households while shielding military and ideological spending. Meanwhile, the dollar\u2019s daily surge and the rial\u2019s rapid collapse<\/a> have accelerated inflation and eroded purchasing power.<\/p>\n

Authoring one\u2019s own story<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, economic grievances underpin the current protests in Iran. However, the slogans used in Iranian protests \u2013 be they over election disputes, economic crises or women\u2019s rights \u2013 indicate a broader critique of the Islamic Republic\u2019s governing philosophy.<\/p>\n

In the current wave of protests, demonstrators articulate through slogans both what they reject \u2013 \u201cDown with the Islamic Republic\u201d \u2013 and what many now seek to happen: \u201cThis is the final battle; Pahlavi will return,\u201d a reference to the exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.<\/p>\n

The \u201cNeither Gaza nor Lebanon\u201d chant asks: What does it mean for a government to prioritize foreign conflicts over domestic welfare? How long can imposed solidarity substitute for actual prosperity? And who has the right to determine which causes are worth sacrifice?<\/p>\n

Such questions extend beyond Iran. They challenge assumptions about how governments invoke international causes to justify domestic policies and when citizens have the right to say, \u201cOur story comes first.\u201d<\/p>\n

As such, the chant \u201cNeither Gaza nor Lebanon, I sacrifice my life for Iran\u201d is, I believe, both protest and reclamation. It rejects the Iranian state\u2019s narrative of mandatory sacrifice while asserting the right of people to author a national story focused on Iran\u2019s own needs, challenges and aspirations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A familiar slogan has echoed through the streets of various Iranian cities in recent days: \u201cNeither Gaza nor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-395670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}