Abstract:
How do we make sense of Iran’s “Women, Life, Freedom”, the extraordinary political uprising that came to being following the death of the Kurdish Mahsa Zhina Amini in September 2022 in the police custody for wearing an “improper” hijab? This is neither a “feminist revolution” per se, nor simply the revolt of the new generation, nor merely about mandatory hijab. This is a movement to reclaim life, a struggle to liberate free and dignified existence from an internal colonization. As the primary objects of this colonization, women have become the protagonists of a movement that may set the Islamic Republic on a revolutionary course.
[1] A preliminary version of this article was published on the Zeytoon website on February 28, 2023. An English version of this article has been published in the Journal of Democracy. Look at:
Asef Bayat, “Is Iran on the Verge of Another Revolution?,” Journal of Democracy 34, no. 2 (April 2023).
