Iran protests seem different. They may lead to real change.

Iran’s latest protest wave did not begin as a grand ideological crusade. It began the way breakdowns often do, with daily life becoming unlivable.

When a currency collapses, prices spiral, wages no longer cover basic needs and public services fail, politics stops being a debate over competing visions and becomes a referendum on endurance.

That is the core reality emerging from Iran today. People are not protesting because they suddenly discovered activism. They are protesting because the habits of coping, tightening their belts, leaning on family and waiting for conditions to improve have finally stopped working.

Exhaustion is not a mood. It is a political force.

Photo by MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

معهد الشرق الأوسط (MEI) هو منظمة تعليمية مستقلة وغير حزبية وغير ربحية. لا يشارك المعهد في أي أنشطة دعوية، وآراء الباحثين فيه تعبر عن آرائهم الشخصية. يرحب المعهد بالتبرعات المالية، لكنه يحتفظ بالسيطرة التحريرية الكاملة على أعماله، ولا تعكس منشوراته سوى آراء المؤلفين. للاطلاع على قائمة المتبرعين للمعهد، يرجى النقر هنا.