We Are Someone’s Dirty Work
A voice of true peace and human rights in Iran
“Love In Tehran” © Jan Oberg
“We are someone’s dirty work. And by “us,” I mean Iranians actually living in Iran. It doesn’t matter what group you think you belong to or what you believe; at the end of the day, our lives are just a resource for someone else’s agenda. We are the currency used in a game we didn’t ask to play.”
[This piece was written after the recent deadly protests in Iran in January and before the new invasion by Israel and the USA in February and March 2026. One more will follow.]
The author
We are someone’s dirty work. And by “us,” I mean Iranians actually living in Iran. It doesn’t matter what group you think you belong to or what you believe; at the end of the day, our lives are just a resource for someone else’s agenda. We are the currency used in a game we didn’t ask to play.
If you are a protester, you are labelled “filthy” and unfaithful to the state, providing the justification to kill you in the streets or throw you in a cell. To the regime, your life is only useful if it’s silent; if it’s not, you become the “dirty work” used to send a message of deterrence to everyone else. If you engage in civil work or join a political party, you are labelled a spy or an enemy of the state, making your elimination desirable. Even a simple social media post can be enough to have your livelihood stripped away.
Then there is the shadow of the “West.”
You go to your hometown, to your parents’ house for a big family gathering, and you wake up to a full-blown war instigated by Israel and joined by the USA. After ten days of being unable to return home, unsure if your job will even exist when you get back, you are forced to accept that you are now a displaced person.
This is not a “conflict”; it is an unlawful invasion of Iranian territory. More than a thousand Iranians have been killed—the vast majority of them civilians. Yet, the German Chancellor calls this “dirty work”1 that had to be done. To these powers, the slaughter of a thousand people is just a tactical necessity to “delete” a regional actor for their own political interests, justified as merely eliminating a “regime.”
You are even considered dirty work by Iranians living abroad. If you don’t support a former Prince or follow the propaganda funded by foreign powers, you are seen as the enemy. There is a whole industry of “opposition” that exists only because of foreign government funds. Even those who aren’t pro-Pahlavi still believe that only they have the answers.
When you ask acquaintances in the diaspora on LinkedIn about the goals or organisers of a demonstration, they tell you to “move on” from their post because you are not the “audience.” They pretend to be your voice, but to them, you are just a subject. They are not the ones who have to live with the consequences. They talk about democracy, but they are looking for another “Spring” that would leave the country destabilised and broken.
If you believe in gradual change, non-violence, or a peaceful transition, you are nobody’s “good guy.”
You are targeted by both sides because violence and extremism are more profitable. They speak of freedom, but they show no respect for freedom of speech or diversity; they believe only they are righteous. When you refuse to pick a side on the far ends of the spectrum, you are rejected by everyone who benefits—politically, financially, or emotionally—from the chaos and polarisation.
So yes, just by being an Iranian in Iran, your blood, suffering, and loss are seen as a “justified” sacrifice for some “greater goal.” The most terrifying part is that every actor – the regime, the invading foreign powers, the diaspora opposition, and even ordinary people who have given up on a better future – claims to be fighting for peace and human rights. They all claim they are doing the right thing.
And that is exactly why they feel so comfortable using our suffering as their dirty work. We are just their dirty work.
People At A Fountain © Jan Oberg
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