Whose Resistance Counts? Iranian Protest, Anti-Imperialism, and the Problem of Political Labels
Written by: Reza Ashouri
For many observers, the politics of contemporary Iran can appear easy to sort into familiar boxes. The Islamic Republic presents itself as anti-American, anti-Israeli, and anti-imperialist. Its critics often include monarchists, secular liberals, diaspora activists, and people who openly call for stronger Western pressure on the regime. On the surface, this can make it seem reasonable to say that the regime belongs to the global left or anti-imperialist camp, while the protesters belong to the right or to a pro-Western camp. That reading has emotional force, especially when one sees some opposition figures align themselves with conservative governments abroad. Yet once the case is examined more carefully, this binary begins to break down. Scholarship on Iranian history, protest movements, and state ideology suggests that the real divide is not best understood as a simple struggle between left and right. It is better understood as a struggle between a state that has monopolized the language of anti-imperialism and a broad, internally diverse population that is contesting that monopoly while demanding dignity, safety, and political voice (Abrahamian, 1982; Bayat, 2013a; Parsa, 2016). This distinction matters because labels shape solidarity. When the Islamic Republic is treated as naturally part of a progressive or anti-imperialist front, its internal repression can appear secondary, unfortunate, or geopolitically inconvenient. When protesters are reduced to a right-wing or pro-imperial bloc, their demands for freedom and survival can be dismissed as foreign manipulation. Both moves flatten reality. They also make it harder to hear what many Iranians have actually been saying for years: a state does not become emancipatory simply by opposing the United States, and a protest movement does not become reactionary simply because it opposes a state that speaks in anti-imperialist terms. A more careful academic argument must therefore separate geopolitical posture from internal social reality. How the Islamic Republic Built Its Anti-Imperialist Image The Islamic Republic did not invent anti-imperialist feeling in Iran. It inherited a society deeply marked by foreign intervention, especially the 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, which many Iranians remember as a major assault on national sovereignty (Abrahamian, 1982). This history gave anti-imperialist language real moral and political force. After 1979, the new regime made that language central to its legitimacy. It portrayed itself as the defender of the oppressed, the enemy of Western domination, and the champion of Palestine and other causes associated with the Global South (Moaddel, 1993; Bayat, 2013b). In foreign policy terms, this orientation has been relatively consistent. The Islamic Republic has aligned itself with powers and governments that also challenge U.S. dominance, including Russia, China, North Korea, and some Latin American states. At one level, that consistency is r…
Anti-Imperialism · Iran · Islamic Republic · Resistance
