This article deals with the reactions in Turkey to Iran’s “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. The Mahsa-Jina protests have been covered by the media close to the ruling Justice and Development Party, and those affiliated with opposition parties or independent feminist civil society activists, each differently. Some analysts argued that lack of legal party platforms for change in Iran (similar to those existing in Turkey) are the driving force behind the Mahsa movement and similar protests in the future. Some pro-government analysts expressed their concern about the possibility of “Kurdish terrorism” gaining power in Iran as a result of any change where Kurdish groups are among the driving force. By emphasizing that wearing the hijab or removing the hijab are “equally a right” for women, and proposing the idea that freedom of dress should be included in the Turkish constitution, the ruling Turkish officials also related the demands against compulsory veiling in Iran to the internal debates about free veiling in Turkey in the post-republican era. On the opposite side, for Turkish feminists, the courageous struggle of Iranian women against the mandatory hijab during the Mahsa protests, to a great extent has changed the stereotypical image about Iranian women that possibly existed among the secular segments of the Turkish society in the post-revolutionary era.
