As I have written before, the West has a habit of viewing Iranian society through a lens of selective optimism—a deep desire to see in it a reflection of its own values, especially among the Iranian middle class. But this hopeful framing often extends to how events in Iran

In a previous article, I examined a single paragraph from a piece by the respected Iranian-American scholar Abbas Milani, aiming to shed light on how the West continues to misread Iran’s middle class—a group that may, in fact, hold the key to shaping Iran’s, and by extension

The Iranian middle class is often discussed as a political force within Iran—conveniently imagined as highly aligned with Western values—but, in my opinion, seldom understood on its own terms. Whilst I intend to write separately about why Western definitions of social class do not map cleanly onto Iranian