00:00Don't feed us, free us. Iranians push back against U.S. hunger narrative.
00:06Tehran, June 24th. When U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance suggested that unfrozen Iranian assets
00:13could be used to buy American wheat and soybeans to feed the Iranian people,
00:18he didn't expect the backlash that followed. From Tehran to social media platforms,
00:24Iranians are pushing back, not against food aid, but against a narrative they say reduces
00:29their struggle to hunger rather than the fight for freedom and dignity.
00:34Our problem isn't hunger, it's freedom. After President Donald Trump said Iran has a hunger
00:41problem and Vance claimed unfrozen funds could make American farmers richer and feed the Iranian people,
00:47Iranians responded forcefully, saying the country's real crisis is repression,
00:52corruption, and the violation of freedoms, not a lack of food.
00:56American officials talk about hunger in Iran as if our problem is a lack of food.
01:02Everything exists here. Government policies have made food unaffordable.
01:07Something grain won't solve our problems, one viewer told Iran International.
01:11Others expressed deep skepticism that any economic relief would reach ordinary citizens.
01:18Right now, the Islamic Republic is probably figuring out how to send that wheat to Lebanon and Iraq,
01:23another respondent wrote, referring to Tehran's long-standing support for regional proxies.
01:30The rice reigns symbol of defiance.
01:32Many respondents pointed to the nationwide protests of January 2026,
01:37arguing that the movement was driven by demands for freedom and political change, rather than hunger.
01:43The symbolic scene in Abdanan, where protesters threw rice into the air,
01:48has become emblematic of this defiance.
01:50Videos from the western city showed protesters scattering rice on the streets,
01:56a gesture widely interpreted as rejecting the idea that their uprising was driven by food shortages.
02:02Commentators described the act as the revolt of those hungry for freedom, not the poor,
02:07with social media users praising protesters for refusing to take the rice home,
02:12a demonstration of dignity over desperation.
02:15Mr. Vance, you were not there during those January nights in Abdanan when grains of rice fell from the sky
02:22like snow,
02:23one citizen wrote.
02:24Iran's Economic Reality and UN Concerns
02:27The backlash comes amid an undeniable economic crisis.
02:32A carton of eggs that cost 70,000 tumen a year ago now exceeds 200,000 tumen,
02:38and basic goods are increasingly out of reach.
02:41UN experts have warned that human rights concerns have not been adequately integrated into peace negotiations,
02:48with at least 156 individuals executed since the war began,
02:52and thousands detained for dissent.
02:54The UN experts cautioned that a deal that serves geopolitical interests,
02:59while leaving the Iranian people behind,
03:01is not a peace agreement worthy of the name.
03:04We'll see you in there.
