The limits and paradoxes of solidarity: some notes on the Iranian uprising and genocide in Palestine
Soundings - Print ISSN 1362-6620 - Online ISSN 1741-0797
Volume 2025 Number 90 & 91
The limits and paradoxes of solidarity: some notes on the Iranian uprising and genocide in Palestine
Gholam Khiabany pages 257‑275
DOI: 10.3898/SOUN:90-91.16.2025
Abstract
Donald Trump’s recent acts of erasure of the will of the Iranian people highlight the reality of the imperial ‘expression of solidarity’ with which this article is concerned. This article examines the wider limits and paradoxes of international ‘solidarity’, and focuses in particular on Iran and Palestine. It argues that, in looking at the responses of imperialist states to Iran (where they claim, among other things, to want to ‘save’ Muslim women) and Palestine (where they are actively involved in the erasure of Palestine), we can observe some of the persisting legacies of empire and its imperial interests. The article draws on scholarly debates on solidarity, and the issue of difference as a central task of coalition building, in which one key question is the possibility for solidarity when motivations for organising diverge. The question for Khiabany is whether different motivations can sometimes make any expression of solidarity insincere and hence void.
To cite this article
Gholam Khiabany (2025) The limits and paradoxes of solidarity: some notes on the Iranian uprising and genocide in Palestine, Soundings, 2025(90 & 91 ), 257-275 . https://doi.org/10.3898/SOUN:90-91.16.2025