What the Left Gets Wrong About the Iranian Protests

Iranians have agency. They have been protesting against this regime from its very beginning. In March 1979, one month after Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran, overthrew the king, and announced the start of the Islamic Republic, 100,000 Iranian women poured in the streets of Tehran to fight against the suddenly compulsory hijab. The protests have continued since then, at times growing larger into their own notable moments in history: the Iranian student protests in 1999 (Kuye Daneshgah), the 2009 Green Movement protests, the Dey protests in 2017, the Bloody November protests in 2019, and the Women Life Freedom protests in 2022. And there have been countless protests, every single day, in between.

It is valid to be wary of U.S. intervention anywhere—certainly, the United States does not have a glittering track record, and Trump is only adding to the lowlights of American foreign policy—but to write off what is happening as a U.S. (or Israeli) masterplan does a disservice to the people of Iran, who have been doing everything they can for decades to fight their oppressors. They are not pawns in some geopolitical game. And perhaps an uncomfortable truth for some is that they need our help.

In 2009, when millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest a stolen election, they called on then-President Obama for his help. “Ya ba oona, ya ba ma,” they chanted in the streets, a pun on Obama’s name that translated to: “You’re either with them, or you’re with us.” Their calls went unheeded. Whatever happens this time around, all I know is this: The Iranian people deserve to be free, and they will be soon; whether the American left wants to play a meaningful role in their liberation or continue to defame them is their choice to make. But Iranians have long memories.