The 2022 protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini while in custody of the country’s ‘guidance control’ (or, ‘morality police’) represent a new experience in the voice of youth, especially women, in articulating religious and secular theories of resistance. Its practical and intellectual impact continues to be felt in Iran and globally, especially through the amplification of the Kurdish protest slogan “Women, Life, Freedom!”. This session is dedicated to understanding the dynamics of gender and sexuality in activism and political change.
Abstract for Comparative Studies of Iranian and Myanmar Women-led Protests from Feminist and Postcolonial Perspectives
Myanmar and Iran are different in many ways, but there are many similarities in protesting gender hierarchy and dictatorship. The oppressed women from both countries have reclaimed their liberated womanhood, women’s dignity, and self-esteem by correcting and/or reinterpreting unhealthy male-dominated religious teachings and cultural taboos and by protesting the dictators in creative ways. Thus, I would argue that a new interpretation of male-biased religious teachings/gender norms is needed, and it can help women realize their true liberated womanhood. Moreover, it will give them the courage to resist injustice, gender-based violence, and regime. First, I will present the similarities and differences between the two protests, and the intersection between gender, sexuality, religion, and politics will follow. In the last section, I will discuss a new interpretation of male-biased gender norms from feminist and postcolonial approaches.
My paper addresses the relationship between protest and religion in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. This movement went from a women’s rights protest to a political revolution, and from political revolution to a mythological one. The latter became unavoidable once authorities began executing protestors for the crime of moharebeh, or “war against God,” and thereby introducing mythical figures, i.e gods, onto the field of protest. Combining the journalistic method of following current events, with the comparative mythology method of observing emergent myths in them, I argue that declaration of religious freedom and reclamation of non-Islamic mythological traditions have become inextricable from the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and compare these moves with the equally revolutionary moves scholars make when taking a critical and comparative approach to the study of religion and myth.
In the wake of Mahsa-Zhina Amini's killing while in the custody of the "Morality Police" for wearing an improper hijab, the Kurdish Freedom Movement's potent slogan "Woman Life Freedom" has become the rallying cry of Iranians. The women-led protests which started in response to the compulsory hijab and women’s rights violation went beyond the policy criticism and evolved into the cry for regime change, which the majority of Iranians see as the only way to end years of gender discrimination and the violation of human rights. The WLF movement is notable in particular for the strong support and active participation of men alongside women. This paper looks into Iranian women’s struggles against oppressive sexist gender norms, their positionality towards religion, their agency in acts of civil disobedience, and the gradual changes their resistance brought about in sociocultural dynamics that enabled the majority of the society for a unanimous uprising.