Afghans Launch Boycott Of Iranian Goods Over Mass Deportations & Mistreatment
In response to the unprecedented wave of forced deportations of Afghan migrants from Iran, Afghan social media users have launched a campaign to boycott Iranian goods.
In response to the unprecedented wave of forced deportations of Afghan migrants from Iran, Afghan social media users have launched a campaign to boycott Iranian goods.
Hundreds of users, including activists, have taken to social media platforms in recent weeks, urging a boycott under the hashtag “Boycotting Iranian Goods Is a National Demand,” countering the popular Iranian slogan “Expelling Afghan Migrants Is a National Demand.”
Afghanistan is one of the largest importers of Iranian goods.
Natiq Malekzada, an Afghan activist based in London, wrote on X on Sunday: “We were supposed to meet friends for lunch in London. When I arrived at the location, I saw it was an Iranian restaurant. I made everyone leave.”
He added: “I don’t understand why we have no pride. An Iranian extremist slaps our compatriots, and we still go to their restaurants just because the food is tasty.”
Niloufar Yousefi, another user, wrote using the hashtag “Boycott Iranian Goods for the Oppression of Refugees” that Afghans should not support a regime that humiliates, tortures, and discriminates against Afghan migrants by purchasing its products.
“Until this injustice ends, we will raise our voices through boycotts,” she added, urging Afghan merchants not to import Iranian goods.
Habiba Salehi wrote that boycotting Iranian goods and cutting off water from the Helmand River to Iran would be a justified response to the repeated mistreatment and systemic humiliation of Afghan refugees by the Iranian state. She called the boycott a “defence of national dignity” and encouraged more Afghans to join the campaign.
Ali Reza Hashemi, a doctor in Herat, said in protest that he would stop prescribing Iranian medicines and instead recommend domestic alternatives.
Nasim Kamgar shared a video showing a young Afghan child describing mistreatment by Iranian authorities. “This is not our fate,” he wrote. “We must preserve this in our collective memory, that when we excluded each other, closed schools, committed corruption, and divided by ethnicity, we were all eventually humiliated and had our dignity crushed.”
Using the hashtag “Boycotting Iranian Goods Is a National Demand,” he added that “in difficult days, Afghans only have each other.”
How Much Does Afghanistan Import from Iran?
Afghan activists are calling for a boycott despite Afghanistan being one of the largest buyers of Iranian goods.
The Tehran Times reported on July 11, that in the first three months of the current Iranian year (starting March 2025), Iran exported $520 million worth of non-oil goods to Afghanistan, making Afghanistan Iran’s fifth-largest export market.
Previously, Hossein Roustaei, Iran’s commercial attaché in Kabul, announced that Iran exported over $3.14 billion in non-oil goods to Afghanistan in 2024.
By contrast, Tasnim News Agency quoted an Iranian official in January stating that Afghanistan exported only $54 million worth of goods to Iran in the same year.
This boycott campaign follows growing anger in Afghanistan over Iran’s treatment of Afghan migrants. Following Iran’s ceasefire with Israel, mass deportations of Afghans resumed with increasing intensity. The Taliban reported that more than half a million Afghan migrants were expelled from Iran within 19 days, with tens of thousands returning daily via the Islam Qala border crossing.
Despite Iranian authorities insisting they are only expelling undocumented migrants, Afghan returnees say even those with valid visas and residency documents have been forcibly removed. In some cases, Iranian officers reportedly tore up Afghan migrants' passports and identity papers.
