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Contribution short abstract:

In Bandar Abbas, Iran, non-elites omit sanctions from daily discourse, using silence as a coping mechanism to normalize life under persistent economic strain. This omission helps resist fixation on sanctions' termination, navigating an indefinite, attritional force affecting all sectors.

Contribution long abstract:

Iran is not the only country to have endured prolonged economic sanctions, but it holds the distinction of being subjected to one of the most extensive and comprehensive sanction regimes in history. Studies reveal that these sanctions were designed to inflict the consequences of military conflict on Iran without requiring the sanctioning countries, primarily the United States, to bear the costs of war.

However, during my ethnographic research in Bandar Abbas—a strategic, historic port located on the narrow Strait of Hormuz—I noticed that sanctions are conspicuously absent from the daily discourse of ordinary people. Fishers, smugglers, seafarers, merchants, and other non-elites rarely, if ever, mention sanctions in their conversations.

Despite statistical indicators showing the pervasive effects of sanctions across all sectors, this lack of "talking sanctions" among non-elites contrasts sharply with the perspective of technocrats and elites, who liken it to ignoring water while drowning. In this study, I explore how this omission reflects the temporality of sanctions—an ongoing, open-ended, attritional force against the environment and society.

Based on my ethnographic findings, I argue that this collective silence serves as a coping mechanism, allowing people to avoid fixating on the uncertain termination of sanctions. By excluding the language of sanctions from their daily lives, they attempt to normalize an existence that sanctions seek to disrupt. Without this omission, the omnipresence of sanctions could dominate their everyday lives, effectively suspending life until sanctions are lifted.