The Direction of Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom Movement

With tensions high domestically and internationally, women both inside and outside of Iran are cynical that things will change. 

A mural in support of the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom) movement. Herzi Pinki. CC BY 4.0

For many in Iran, history can be broken up into two epochs: before 1979 and after. Women, in particular, find significance in this demarcation because Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution brought the expansion — and then constriction — of their rights. These tensions surrounding women’s role in Iranian society came to a head in 2022, when the widespread Woman, Life, Freedom movement put them on global display. But the Woman, Life, Freedom movement didn’t spawn out of nowhere, and it’s important to look at its past when considering its future.

Women at the 1979 International Women’s Day protests in Tehran. Mohammad Sayad. CC0

Prior to the Iranian Revolution, women saw their rights and opportunities gradually expand as part of the country’s modernization efforts. The state wanted to Westernize itself, and this manifested in women being mandated (sometimes violently) to not veil themselves, per a 1936 decree. But the revolution saw the nation shirk its Western influences  — thanks in large part to women. While some mobilized public demonstrations, others acted as nurses and first responders. Few fought in guerilla conflicts, but many wore hijabs to protest the monarchy's 1936 ban on veils, linking modest dress with the revolution’s vision of a new Iran. 

However, after the revolution succeeded and the pro-Western monarchy was overthrown for an Islamist theocracy, women’s roles became more limited. In an interview I conducted with  Iranian Circle of Women’s Intercultural Network steering committee member Ruja Kia, she affirmed, “Adding the religious components of private life to the law of the land never makes things easier for women.”  

The revolution placed nearly all Iranian state power in the role of “the supreme leader,” where it still remains today. As both a religious and  political authority, the first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, sought to curb women’s post-revolution rights and professional opportunities in favor of a return to traditional domesticity. Further, after revolutionaries associated modesty with the new Islamic Republic, Khomeini mandated women to cover themselves with hijabs. What had once been a symbol of dissent and autonomy became a violently imposed law. 

The 1979 hijab mandate notably came under international scrutiny in 2022, following the death of Mahsa Amini. Iran’s Guidance Patrol, or morality police, arrested Amini for an “improper hijab.” She died in their custody three days later —  officially of a heart attack but allegedly of police brutality (In our interview, Ruja Kia also noted that Amini was Kurdish, an Iranian ethnic minority that often faces discrimination). 

A man protests in support of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement following Amini’s death. Ilias Bartolini. CC BY 2.0

Amini’s death sparked mass protests — not only in Iran but also around the world. Internationally, the rallying cry was “woman, life, freedom,” a translation of the Kurdish feminist slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi.” For its criticisms against the compulsory hijab, the morality police and the Islamic Republic in general, the Woman, Life, Freedom movement has been intensely repressed by Iran’s current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian security forces have killed more than 500 demonstrators and arrested thousands across the country.

“I say explicitly that these [Woman, Life, Freedom] riots and this insecurity were a design by the US and the occupying, fake Zionist regime [Israel],” Khamenei said in 2022, as reported by Al Jazeera. On a broader scale, Khamenei believes that the hijab is a religious and therefore, moral obligation. He further contended that gender equality is a Western plot designed to weaken Iran: “[The West] feel[s] that [Iran] is progressing towards full-scale power and they can’t tolerate this.” Because of and in spite of Khamenei’s deadly response, the Women, Life, Freedom movement gained international prominence, making the future of women’s rights in Iran an unavoidable and salient issue in the recent election. 

Two women attend a Woman, Life, Freedom protest wearing past versions of the Iranian flag. Taymaz Valley. CC BY 2.0

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s newest president, campaigned on a reformist platform, asserting a desire to steer the nation toward greater peace. Now, after taking office in July, he has a chance to do so. For many nations that have tensions with Iran, having the moderate Pezeskian in office is cause for cautious optimism. Inside Iran’s borders, however, women are still reeling from the pushback Woman, Life, Freedom received two years ago and are thus more cynical about the promise of Pezeshkian’s election. “Although we might see more moderate approaches in bigger metropolitan areas, women across the rest of Iran will stay controlled by family customs and norms,” said Ruja Kia. 

As the only reformist in a field of six candidates, Pezeshkian’s positions on women’s rights stood out as the most progressive. Frequently invoking his daughter, a chemist, and the memory of his late wife, a gynecologist, he spoke of increasing women’s presence in the professional sector: “A woman is not a servant at home,” Pezeshkian wrote on X

Regarding the mandatory hijab, Pezeshkian has expressed support for relaxing the mandate:  “The behavior of Iranian girls will not change. Just as the previous [1936 laws] could not forcibly remove the hijab from the heads of our women, you cannot force them to wear the hijab by passing a law,” he wrote in another X post. But some, like Kimia Adibi, the President of UC Berkeley’s Iranian Students’ Cultural Organization, believe that  Pezeshkian’s words are empty promises. “[Pezeshkian’s] not actually pushing for women’s freedom and change because if he were, he never would’ve been allowed to run,” Adibi said to me. “Anyone who’s an actual radical reformist and believes in women’s freedom and not forcing the mandatory hijab… like, they’re not even going to make it to the candidacy level.”

A woman at a Woman, Life, Freedom protest. Matt Hrkac. CC BY 2.0

Pezeshkian’s parliamentary record shows that he’s supported restrictions on women’s rights in the past, and alongside the posts he made calling for women’s rights, he also posted to X, “All of us move towards dignity and power according [...] to the general policies of the supreme leader.” 

For Iranian feminists, the zeitgeist has not shifted. While it’s not impossible, they say, for Pezeshkian to achieve some reform — “little shifts,” as Adibi put it — so long as religion and politics remain married to an ultimate authority who violently rejects gender equality, women’s rights in Iran will not improve much under the new president. 

A Woman, Life, Freedom protest sign in Kurdish, English and Persian. Pirehelokan. CC BY 4.0 

“I’ll speak for myself,” Adibi said, “but I think most Iranians are not super optimistic about the direction of women’s rights under this president. And they won’t be under the next president, or the next president, under however many presidents until the supreme leader is removed from power.” 

When speaking with an admin from the Instagram account @irans.feminist.liberation, I found this feeling re-affirmed. “The future for women and minorities in Iran remains bleak,” she said, “unless there is significant internal pressure for change.


Bella Liu

Bella is a student at UC Berkeley studying English, Media Studies and Journalism. When she’s not writing or working through the books on her nightstand, you can find her painting her nails red, taking digicam photos with her friends or yelling at the TV to make the Dodgers play better.

Iran’s Shoddy ‘Satellite Cities’ Test Citizens’ Patience

Thanks to high rent prices and overpopulation, thousands of Iranians have been forced out of their hometowns. But the “satellite cities” built to hold them leave much to be desired. 

An aerial view of Tehran, Iran. Hansueli Krapf. CC BY-SA 3.0

In the 1980s, Iran intentionally tried to grow its own population, aiming to increase its military strength amid the Iran-Iraq war. The 1979 Islamic Revolution had seen Iran’s old monarchy overthrown and a new republic built on Shiite Islam take shape. Student groups and leftist organizations rejoiced at the new rights promised to women; Islamist groups lauded the fact that their country was now a theocracy. But the new government wanted to ensure that the ideas of the revolution would last beyond one generation. So it encouraged polygamy, made birth control nearly impossible to find and lowered the age of marriage to 9 for girls and 15 for boys.

The plan worked—Iran’s population grew enormously. Forty years after the revolution, there are almost 50 million more people living in Iran. But these newcomers are not a new generation of happy, loyal citizens. They are people who the nation was not built to hold. 

Overpopulation was not something Iran was completely unprepared for. Soon after the revolution, 17 new “satellite cities” were planned on the outskirts of the country's major cities. They had names like Pardis (“paradise” in Persian) and Parand ("silk"). They were to provide affordable places to live for people that the larger cities could not hold. But as Iran struggled with unrest and war, these cities wouldn’t begin to be built for decades. They remain half-finished even today.

The Mehr housing project in Nishapur, Iran. Sonia Sevilla. CC BY 1.0

In 2007, the Iranian government developed a scheme it hoped would solve the overpopulation problem and make the satellite cities more livable: contract out free land to real estate developers who were willing to build low-income housing units. In this way around 2 million homes were planned to be built throughout Iran. But the Mehr housing project, as it was called, failed to deliver in the cities that needed housing the most. The 400,000 units built were poorly constructed and lacked essential utilities, like plumbing and clean water. The sterile white color that all the high-rises were painted with in Pardis says it all. These buildings didn’t seem like they were meant to be lived in, only passed through. 

But the satellite cities are indeed lived in. In recent years, the overpopulation that plagues Iran’s largest cities has only gotten worse. The Financial Times reported in 2017 that the population of Tehran, Iran’s capital and largest city, “exceeds the optimum level by more than 70%.” The air is full of pollution, and the city’s roads are packed with traffic. But the last straw for many Tehranis is the cost of housing, which according to the New Yorker has more than doubled in the last three years. U.S. sanctions have contributed to this, as did former President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. With nowhere else to go, droves of Iranians have moved to the satellite cities, where houses are cheaper. In 2019, the population of Parand was 100,000; a year later, that number had doubled.

The unfinished cities have been unable to provide jobs for their populations. Most of the people who make up Pardis must commute each day to work in Tehran. And, as the city lacks most forms of public transport, this means driving—sometimes up to three hours each way. The cities lack recreational areas, stores and the capabilities to provide health care and schooling to their growing populations. It’s no surprise that drug abuse and suicides are common in the cities.

Real estate prices remain high in congested Tehran, and more and more people are expected to leave. The people who make up these satellite cities, despite the lack of basic amenities, are grateful that they have a place to go at all. The Mehr housing project is not finished, and it is possible that in five years the livability of Tehran’s satellite cities will improve. But it is up to the Iranian government to ensure that these improvements do happen, and soon. The well-being of many Iranians depends on it.


Finn Hartnett

Finn grew up in New York City and is now a first-year at the University of Chicago. In addition to writing for Catalyst, he serves as a reporter for the Chicago Maroon. He spends his free time watching soccer and petting his cat.

U.N. Drops Saudi Arabia-Led Coalition From Blacklist Despite Recent Killings of Children 

With no evidence that children are safe, the U.N. decided to remove the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen off a blacklist for violations of children’s rights. 

Child in Yemen among the rubble. Carl’s eye. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

On June 17, the U.N. made the decision to remove the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia from one of its blacklists. The significance of this specific list, which focuses on children in armed conflict, is to shame groups that are guilty of violating the rights of children. Anyone can be placed on the list for a multitude of violations ranging from killing children to the recruitment of children for war. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that the coalition’s removal was decided by efforts made to reduce the number of deaths and decrease the airstrikes that caused the killings over the previous three years.

However, there is a discrepancy in the decision. According to data released by the U.N., 222 children were hospitalized or killed as a result of these attacks last year. In addition, several hours after the U.N. announced its decision to remove the coalition, four children were killed in an attack in northwest Yemen.           

The war in Yemen can be traced back to 2011. Following the Arab Spring, there has been unrest due to a failed political transition that led to terrorist attacks, a separatist movement and corruption. However, in 2014 a rebel group known as the Houthis, backed by Iran, ousted the government. What started out as a civil war transitioned into a conflict with neighboring countries as the Saudi Arabia-led coalition stepped in, attempting to help restore the government and defeat the Houthis.  

Child of Yemen. Carl’s eye. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

As of March 2020, it is estimated that 7,700 civilians have died in the war, largely due to airstrikes from the coalition. However, these are only verified deaths. Some statistics estimate it to be as high as 100,000 fatalities. On top of the conflict, Yemen has been experiencing one of the worst famines it has seen in over 100 years. The country is considered the poorest Arab nation, and the war has ruined the economy to the extent that many people, especially children, are considered malnourished.                                                            

There has been backlash over the U.N.’s decision to remove the coalition from the blacklist. From a video posted by Al Jazeera, protests have taken to the streets outside of the U.N. headquarters in Yemen to speak of their disapproval. The main concern is that the removal could leave children vulnerable to future attacks, as voiced by groups like Save the Children. Observers are also questioning the integrity of the blacklist itself, including Iran which said that “the U.N. is giving a free pass.” Iran claims that the Houthis and the Yemeni government have been responsible for the same number of deaths yet only the Houthis remain on the list.

Guterres has said that U.N. would monitor the coalition’s activity over the next year. If there is an increase in children’s casualties, the coalition would be placed back on the list.


Eva Ashbaugh

Eva is a Political Science and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies double major at the University of Pittsburgh. As a political science major concentrating on International Relations, she is passionate about human rights, foreign policy, and fighting for equality. She hopes to one day travel and help educate people to make the world a better place.