Iran International
At the cost of creating serious water shortages, Iran’s agricultural sector has vastly expanded over recent decades in pursuit of food self-sufficiency and hard currency through exports.
The country is already grappling with one of the worst water crises in the Middle East, with more than 300 cities currently experiencing water stress according to official statistics.
Former Agriculture Minister Isa Kalantari put the situation starkly in an interview with the Entekhab newspaper, saying the agricultural sector consumes 77 billion cubic meters of water annually—85–90 percent of Iran’s total water withdrawals—producing $40 billion in output but imposing an environmental cost of $44 billion.
A political push for food independence
Since the Islamic Revolution, food self-sufficiency has been treated as a pillar of economic independence. This strategy gained momentum during the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War and amid international sanctions.
“Tensions in foreign policy have led the state to treat food sovereignty as a security issue; this approach, instead of promoting genuine development, has merely resulted in the unchecked expansion of agriculture,” said Morad Kaviani-Rad, professor of hydro-politics at Tehran University, in an interview with Entekhab.
Kaviani-Rad said that Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization recognized as early as the 1950s that the country lacked the natural capacity for full agricultural self-sufficiency and should instead prioritize industrialization.
Nevertheless, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has repeatedly called for increased domestic food production and population growth. In a 2021 speech, he said Iran could feed four times its current population with existing rainfall if resources were managed properly.
The emphasis on food self-reliance and export-oriented agriculture has long drawn criticism from experts.
“Failing to understand the subtle yet strategic difference between ‘food self-sufficiency’ and ‘food security’ ... will destroy agriculture, the economy, water, land, natural resources, farmers’ livelihoods and the security of an entire nation,” warned Kaveh Madani, a leading Iranian environmentalist, in a December 2023 post on X.
Water-intensive exports deepen the crisis
Despite mounting evidence, Iran’s agricultural expansion continues largely unchecked, with subsidies and government incentives still promoting cultivation of thirsty crops for export, a practice often described as “exporting virtual water.”
Pistachios, for example, earned $1.5 billion in export revenues in the year to March 2025 but require 5,000–7,000 cubic meters of water per hectare annually. They are mainly grown in Kerman province, one of Iran’s driest regions, where over-extraction has led to aquifer depletion and land subsidence.
According to Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, agricultural products accounted for approximately 12 percent of the country’s non-oil exports in the year to March 2025, underscoring their economic significance.
This year’s severe drought and worsening water shortages in areas including Tehran, however, have amplified warnings about growing water-intensive crops for export.
"Just as the reservoirs are one by one approaching zero, truckloads of cucumbers, watermelons, and potatoes are being shipped to Iraq and Russia," wrote Iranian journalist Azadeh Mokhtari in Rokna News on August 22. "This isn't called export; it's called an emergency outflow of the country's water resources—with no return."
The images, some first shared in early August on X by social media activist Sana Moeinni, depict scenes that appear to show everyday urban life in present-day Iran. They present a strikingly relaxed atmosphere, with diversity in clothing styles and subtle cultural symbols such as flags used in Shiite Muharram mourning ceremonies.
One photo shows a group of young men and women in casual, Western-style clothing gathered around a woman in Lebanese-style hijab seated on a large red armchair placed in the middle of a street.
Another depicts a woman and child riding a yellow scooter—an image that would have been almost unthinkable just a few years ago, when an unwritten ban on riding bicycles or motorcycles in public was strictly enforced.
Staged reality or social progress?
Critics argue that the images are staged. Diaspora journalist Amir Kalhor called them part of a coordinated propaganda campaign.
“This project, involving dozens of photographers, models, and production teams, is designed to project a fabricated, sanitized image of life in Iran under the rule of the Islamic Republic for international audiences,” Kalhor wrote on Instagram.
Supporters of President Masoud Pezeshkian, however, see the backlash differently. Kiana Poorhaghighi, a young pro-government activist, argued that opposition groups feel threatened because hijab enforcement has been a powerful rallying point.
“If the Islamic Republic acknowledges diversity of clothing, as seen in these photos, the opposition loses one of its strongest tools,” she wrote on X.
Alireza Ziloochi, who calls himself a tourism expert, said: "I still can’t figure out when I should say, ‘Bravo for this courage. Everyday acts of resistance matter. People need to get used to seeing these images,’ when someone posts a photo without hijab in Iran’s streets — and when I should say, ‘The reformist scoundrels have launched the regime’s whitewashing project, because otherwise the streets of the city aren’t like this at all.’"
The photographers have not been publicly identified.
‘Fragments of reality’
Some critics accused the photographers of “selectively highlighting fragments of reality” to suggest that Pezeshkian’s government has eased restrictions, while concealing the ongoing struggles women face.
A commenter argued that the photos “whitewashed” the reality of the Islamic Republic by showing unveiled women but not the harshness of the daily risks women take: “It’s a struggle that costs us—materially, emotionally, mentally, and even physically,” she wrote.
Others framed the issue in broader terms of personal freedom: “Our women’s clothing, whether veil or bikini, should not be imposed by the state. Women and men should decide for themselves. We do not need guardians.”
The reality on the ground
In May, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council shelved a new hardline bill mandating stricter hijab rules, reportedly out of fear of public backlash. Enforcement has not disappeared, but reports of women facing harassment, including fines and impounding of their vehicles, are not as common as before.
While unveiled women are now common in Tehran and other cities, most still carry scarves in their bags to use in banks, government offices, or public transport if ordered.
“You can say we are free only when we can go to the bank, tax office, or hospital without a hijab, and are not told at the entrance to cover up,” one user wrote on X.
Few women dress entirely as they wish: most avoid sleeveless shirts, shorts, or short skirts, opting instead for long sleeves and modest skirts as a compromise to avoid confrontation.
“[Having to wear] long-sleeved blouses, pants, and long skirts in 40-degree heat cannot be considered freedom of dress,” a post on X argued.
Change from above or women’s steadfastness?
Supporters of Pezeshkian credit his presidency with the apparent relaxation of enforcement in recent months. Others insist that it is women’s defiance—not government reform—that has shifted the balance.
“The fact that women today walk unveiled in Tehran or even ride motorcycles is neither the result of ‘reform’ nor the reformists’ achievement,” one critic wrote, pointing out these relative freedoms are not formally recognized as legal rights.
“Any change in this matter is the result of women’s resistance,” wrote feminist activist Zeinab Zaman.
Milani told Eye for Iran podcast that Iranian women are at the heart of today’s opposition.
“The Iranian woman who decides to walk in the streets of Tehran, Shiraz, Bandar Abbas, without a veil… that’s the most potent opposition to this regime,” he said.
Despite intensified crackdowns, women continue to defy compulsory hijab laws.
Public opinion surveys point in the same direction. A poll conducted last summer involving more than 77,000 people found that a majority reject the Islamic Republic and favor either regime change or a structural transition.
Milani said the most authentic expressions of opposition are found in cultural acts, not exile politics.
“It is the manifesto of the future of Iran,” he said.
Milani highlighted a recent production at Stanford University by acclaimed playwright Bahram Beyzaie, a reinterpretation of the revolution through the eyes of women. The play drew widespread interest inside Iran, with audiences requesting online access, while receiving little notice outside.
Awakening from a 'nightmare'
“Iranians have woken up from this nightmare,” Milani said referring to the Islamic Republic, “but now they need to get rid of the source of this nightmare, which is dogmatism, which is religious domination, which is velayat-e faqih. (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist)"
Milani’s remarks come as Iran faces one of its harshest crackdowns in decades. Rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been executed in the past year, many in public.
In Isfahan, authorities have begun ordering the confiscation of Baha’i homes and assets — a move the community’s representatives described to Iran International as “economic strangulation.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of labor activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, and women’s rights defender Hasti Amiri has been sentenced to three years in prison after protesting executions and appearing unveiled in public.
The long shadow of 1953
Milani argues that Iranians have too often been trapped in emotional narratives of the 1953 coup orchestrated by the CIA and the 1979 Islamic Revolution, casting the monarchy and the Islamic Republic in black-and-white terms.
"The Shah was, at worst, an authoritarian leader. At best, he was a modernizer,” Milani said. “This regime, at best, is a pseudo-totalitarian regime. And at worst, totalitarian.”
The difference, Milani said, is that while the monarchy did not attempt to reshape private lives, the Islamic Republic has tried to engineer a “new man and woman,” reducing women to second-class citizens and criminalizing dissent.
Milani argued that younger Iranians are less interested in “black and white” narratives about 1953 that toppled the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh, and more focused on freedom, equality, and dignity in their daily lives.
The Islamic Republic has long invoked the 1953 coup to justify hostility toward the United States, while downplaying the fact that Mosaddegh’s supporters were outlawed after 1979.
In 2023, the CIA for the first time described its role in ousting Mosaddegh as “undemocratic.” Yet Milani says the coup cannot be reduced to CIA intrigue alone, arguing that Iran’s clergy were decisive in turning against Mosaddegh.
Iran's future in people's hands
Seven decades on, he believes the lesson is clear: Iran’s future will not be decided by nostalgia or in-exile politics but by the resilience of ordinary citizens.
“The future of Iran,” Milani said, “is in the hands of those women, those teachers, those citizens who refuse to live by this ideology. They are the opposition to this regime.”
“Iranian society is more represented by intellectuals who used to be religious and now go and kiss the feet of a Baha’i and say, I’m sorry for everything we have done to you,” he added. “That’s the future of Iran. Those women are the future of Iran. They are the opposition to this regime.”
You can watch the full episode of Eye for Iran on YouTube or listen on any major podcast platform like Spotify, Apple, Amazon, or Castbox.
