Tag: Women
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Bread, Speech, and Prison: Remembering Sattar Beheshti on Workers’ Day
On International Workers’ Day, Goahar Eshghi, the mother of Sattar Beheshti, published a message addressed to workers in Iran. It is a short text, but it carries the weight of a whole political history: the history of a worker killed in custody, a mother turned into a public voice of justice, and a society where…
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Iran’s New ‘Hijab Situation Room’ and the Failure of Control
On Friday, October 17, 2025, the secretary of Tehran province’s “Enjoining Good & Forbidding Wrong” headquarters, announced a new “Situation Room for Chastity & Hijab,” alongside the organization and activation of “more than 80,000 trained volunteers” plus 4,575 trainers and judicial auxiliaries (“zabet-e qazaei”). Officials framed it as a cultural-social campaign run with “cultural and…
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After Jina Amini: Bodies, Labor, and the Regime’s Social Defeat
After “Woman, Life, Freedom,” Iran’s hijab law has neither changed nor been repealed; yet in social reality the state has failed to enforce it effectively. The streets of Tehran and other cities now look less like scenes of discipline and more like a daily referendum: women without hijab or with diverse forms of dress move…
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Seven Women in Evin Prison Speak Out Against War
Two separate but politically aligned statements from seven imprisoned Iranian women — all feminist and labor rights activists currently held in Tehran’s Evin Prison — have emerged, calling for an end to war, foreign aggression, and authoritarian rule. The statements sharply criticize both the Israeli government’s military assault on Iran and the wider role of…
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Narratives and Realities: Why Kashmir Doesn’t Fit the Script
I’ve followed Sahasranshu Dash for some time—initially through his public posts and online commentary. What drew me in was his clarity: sharp, unapologetic, and willing to cut through ideological noise. But it was after the April 22, 2025, suicide attack in Kashmir that his reflections began to carry a heavier weight. His words didn’t just…
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A Theology of Rebellion: A Muslim Woman’s Revolt from Within
What happens when a Muslim woman says no to the forced hijab? What if that woman is not a secular activist or a Western journalist, but a religious scholar, a poet, and a former member of the Iranian Islamic parliament? This article introduces a Persian-language book by Sedigheh Vasmaghi, a theologian, poet, and former Iranian…
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Mobile Surveillance and the War on Women’s Bodies in Iran
In recent years, Iran has intensified its enforcement of compulsory hijab laws through the deployment of advanced surveillance technologies. While the national implementation of these laws has faced challenges and public resistance, certain regions, notably Isfahan, have become focal points for stringent enforcement measures. Isfahan, a major city in central Iran, has witnessed the integration…
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Baloch Women Face Repression for Speaking Out
In March 2025, two prominent Baloch human rights defenders, Mahrang Baloch and Sammi Deen Baloch, were arrested by Pakistani authorities during peaceful protests in Quetta and Karachi. Their arrests have increased concerns about the criminalization of dissent and the ongoing policy of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. Both women are internationally recognized for their work. In…
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The War on Women: Beyond the Hijab of Erasure
In the pages of ancient manuscripts, beneath the delicate strokes of ink and gold, there is an instrument that appears again and again. Held in the hands of scholars, navigators, and mathematicians, it gleams in the soft candlelight of medieval scriptoria. The astrolabe—an intricate map of the heavens, a device that guided travelers through deserts…
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The Sacred Fig and the Death of Patriarchy
I watched The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof at an alternative cinema in old town of Bern. They’re saying it’s up for the Best International Feature at the Oscars, and honestly, I see why. The story follows Iman, a man who’s spent 21 years serving the regime. He’s just been promoted to…
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Impact of the Hijab Law on Iranian Society
The newly approved Hijab Law in Iran, composed of 74 articles across five chapters, has ignited a storm of criticism among legal experts, citizens, journalists, and political figures. Many see it as a direct assault on individual and social freedoms, imposing restrictions that clash with the realities of daily life in a rapidly evolving society.…
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One Name, Many Lives: The Myth of the ‘Muslim Woman’
The story of the “Muslim woman” is not a story at all—it’s a shadow cast by politics, a construct made to fit agendas, not lives. Behind the veil of this title are millions of women with struggles as diverse as their names. But too often, these struggles are erased, replaced by a single narrative meant…
