by an Iranian in Vienna
During the past month, a new phenomenon has become visible in Vienna, Berlin, and other European cities: large demonstrations organized by Iranian opposition groups, both online and in the streets, urging Europeans to “be their voice” and to show solidarity. But a basic question remains unanswered—a voice for what, exactly? What are they asking of EU citizens? The demands are often vague, yet the emotional appeal is loud. In this article, I argue why Europeans—particularly those on the left—should be deeply cautious about lending their voice or solidarity to these mobilizations.
One of the gifts of living in Vienna has been the sense of belonging to a genuinely cosmopolitan public sphere. Over the years, I have learned about other societies, their struggles, and their aspirations. I have joined demonstrations in solidarity with democratic and humanitarian movements for Palestine, Venezuela, Syria, and Yemen, and with vulnerable social groups—from LGBTQI communities to workers, migrants, and people with disabilities. In all these cases, the street functioned as a forum of deliberation: a place to persuade fellow citizens, to raise awareness, and to express compassion.
What distinguishes many of these Iranian demonstrations, however, is that they appear to run counter to the democratic values of the societies that host them. In Austria and Germany—countries shaped by long traditions of social democracy and leftist intellectual debate—one can witness crowds chanting in Persian: “We will kill three corrupt groups: Islamic clerics, leftists, and Mujahideen.” Calls for violence against any group – including Muslims – should alarm a healthy democratic society. But to hear open threats against leftists in the center of Vienna is especially jarring.
How can organized groups enjoy such impunity in countries where demonstrations are usually closely monitored and chants scrutinized? Europeans will recall the intense legal debates in Austria, Germany, and elsewhere over far more ambiguous slogans in pro-Palestinian protests—such as “from the river to the sea”—which authorities argued might imply coercion against the occupiers rather than peaceful political change. Yet some Iranian opposition demonstrators have crossed social red lines even more brazenly, openly violating norms of public decency and civility and engaging in sexualized aggression, shouting vulgar threats such as “we are coming to shove those Palestinian flags into your asses.” Perhaps these provocations are aimed primarily at their own people back home who have expressed solidarity with Palestine. But such threats and vulgar, sexualized aggression cannot be excused or tolerated. They seem to believe that insulting Palestinians will grant them impunity from legal consequences—and, so far, that calculation appears to have been correct.
Beyond these scenes lies a more fundamental question: what is their political demand that brings them to the streets? In a word, war. Many demonstrators—many of whom hold refugee status and receive social support in EU allegedly because of lack of freedom of speech back home—now exercise their right to free speech to mobilize around a single lethal demand: a full-scale military assault on their home country, falling overwhelmingly on innocent civilians. They refuse to engage seriously with Iraqis, Syrians, or Afghans around them about what war actually means for ordinary people. When confronted, some reply with openly racist rhetoric, asserting their “Aryan” racial superiority in contrast to Arabs and depicting U.S. or NATO intervention as fraternal assistance from racially aligned allies.
This brings us back to the central question: how should the anti-imperialists respond if it genuinely wants to help Iranians? The chants—and even much worse threats—directed at leftists stem precisely from the fact that European progressives uphold anti-war principles, peaceful deliberation, and democratic transition. The Iranians who most need solidarity are those living inside the country: people struggling for political freedoms under state repression while also enduring severe economic hardship exacerbated by Western sanctions. For them, any military escalation would only deepen suffering.
From this perspective, the most meaningful solidarity European progressives can offer to the Iranian civil society is to stand firmly by their own principles. Confronting the militant currents within parts of the diaspora would not weaken democratic forces in Iran; on the contrary, it could help prevent violent fantasies abroad from infecting the genuine popular resistance at home—a resistance striving both for freedom from authoritarianism and protection from imperialist interventions. We will take to the streets against US, Israeli, Russian and European interventions in Iran and elsewhere in the world, opposing authoritarianism, war threats and the brutal sanctions. We – no matter Austrian, Iranian, Palestinian – are committed to solidarity and compassion because we believe that the liberation of one is tied to the liberation of all for a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future for all of us.
Post scriptum:
This time, the Iranian military has made it clear that in the event of an attack on its territory, it will not hesitate to retaliate by targeting oil infrastructure across the region. Such a scenario would likely trigger one of the largest economic crises in Europe, given the continent’s heavy reliance on oil from the Persian Gulf. Nevertheless, the United States appears willing to inflict yet another large-scale humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East, while simultaneously imposing a severe economic shock on Europe—pushing millions into poverty and generating a new wave of refugees.
Moreover, at present, Iran hosts approximately seven million Afghan refugees as a direct consequence of previous U.S. military interventions in the region. In the event of war, the majority of these refugees—along with displaced Iranians—would move toward Europe, crossing EU borders in significant numbers following a new round of U.S. attacks on Iran. Given Iran’s population size—far larger than that of Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan—such a displacement would dwarf anything previously described as a “refugee crisis” in the European Union.
All the costs of US imperial interventions in Iran will fall on the European citizens.
