As the West has tightened its sanctions on Iran and as Western leaders have rather proudly spoken of the effect of their policy, I thought it necessary to bring the forgotten group who suffer the most from the sanctions into mainstream discourse. This article indicates the impact of sanctions on the lives of millions of ordinary Iranians, whose situations are far removed from the political concerns of the sanctioning states. In so doing, I will first mention the growing idea of the West as Iran’s national enemy. The construction of this notion is attributed to the impact of sanctions on the daily lives of Iranians, who find these penalties demeaning and unjust. I will take this forward by explaining the side effects of this policy, which have political implications for the West’s dealings with the people of Iran in the long term.