In Her Name: (Re)Imagining Feminist Solidarities in the Aftermath of the Iran Protests

Abstract

Abstract:The death of twenty-two-year-old Jîna "Mahsa" Amini, while in the custody of Iran's morality police in the autumn of 2022, sparked nationwide protests throughout Iran. Iranian women came out to the streets in large numbers, performing a revolutionary femininity that defied mandatory veiling and disrupted the state-prescribed order.This article situates these protests in the broader history of women's struggles in post-revolutionary Iran and sheds a critical light on what has come to be called a "feminist revolution." It critically assesses the impact of the protests in creating a space for sisterhood, crossing class and ethnic boundaries in Iran and providing the impetus for envisioning feminist solidarities across national borders.