Abstract:
This article analyzes Iranians’ struggle for democracy and women’s quest for gender equality in connection with the 2022 uprising called the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. It will explain why and how the central slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” epitomizes the many aspects and elements of this unprecedented movement, including its emphasis on women, nation, and unity against the ruling regime as an occupying force. In doing so, the article distinguishes Iranian quests for modernity, women’s struggle for equality particularly expressed in their literary output, and Iranian youths’ access to information as the roots and backgrounds of this new movement. Given women’s literary discourse over the past decades and the profound changes in Iranian popular culture, the notion of such an uprising and the resulting paradigm shift should not have been unimaginable.
