Consuming with Care: Insights into Ethical Consumption in Iran

Sara Karimzadeh^*

• Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

This study examines the meanings and practices of ethical consumption in Iran, drawing on 19 in-depth qualitative interviews with urban residents in the mid-sized city of Urmia. The study argues that ethical considerations are embedded in local cultural, spiritual, and social norms, rather than shaped by institutional frameworks or dominant environmental discourses. Thematic analysis is employed across three stages of consumption: pre-consumption, consumption, and post-consumption. In the pre-consumption stage, participants face structural constraints, such as limited access to reliable information and economic precarity, that influence the scope of their ethical choices. During consumption, the avoidance of heyf-o-meyl (wastefulness and unnecessary consumption) reflects a sufficiency-oriented ethic rooted in traditional and cultural teachings. In the post-consumption phase, ehsan kardan (acts of care and generosity) emerges as an ethical divestment practice that both minimizes waste and supports others in need. Overall, participants conceptualize ethical consumption through human-centered values-care, responsibility, and generosity-rather than through environmentalism or formal regulatory mechanisms. The study contributes to the literature on sustainable consumption by illuminating culturally embedded, locally meaningful forms of ethical engagement that constitute a moral micro-economy.