Public Reactions to Ali Khamenei’s New Year Slogan

Iranians reacted strongly to the naming of the new year by Ali Khamenei.

Ali Khamenei named the new year of 1403 as “Production Surge with People’s Participation,” but Iranians reacted to this naming on social networks and interpreted its content as a sign of increasing poverty in society and the expansion of government corruption.

One social media user, based on their experiences over the past years, wrote: “Neither a production surge will happen nor people’s participation will occur, just a series of new corruption schemes will form based on this year’s slogan, that’s all.”

“Mitra,” another user on the social network X, wrote: “Production surge with people’s participation means that the system, on one hand, has become so desperate in improving the economic situation that it is begging the people, ultimately for 30 percent, and on the other hand, it reduces people’s protests solely to an economic issue and turns a blind eye to other conflicts such as mandatory hijab and unprecedented treatment of civil activists.”

Another user, while pointing out the futility of these slogans, wrote: “The Supreme Leader formally said we made a mistake by mentioning inflation in last year’s slogan. We will continue with the same unmeasurable names as before.”

Another person, sarcastically referring to this slogan on their personal page, wrote: “This naming is an open order to pick people’s pockets. It is clear from this year’s slogan that we have a major role in increasing the government’s budget.”

Another user, also in reaction to this naming, said: “What’s interesting is that every year’s slogans remain just slogans.”

“Mojtaba Davudi” also on X, while alluding to the hidden dimensions of this naming in generating government revenue from public resources, wrote: “The year’s slogan ‘Production Surge with People’s Participation’ was for higher taxes, with only the second part of the slogan removed.”

“Mohammad Hossein Karimipour” also, while referring to the ineffectiveness of Ali Khamenei’s naming, wrote: “By God’s power, every issue that became a year’s slogan was ruined over the course of that year. We have no more than one year’s slogan: each year stingier than the last!”