'Woman, Life, Freedom' spirit lives on as Iran war drags on

On September 16, 2022, Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died away in a Tehran hospital . She had left her home in northwestern Iran to visit the capital and was then confronted by Tehran's morality police, who claimed the she was violating the mandate for women to cover their hair. The police arrested her. Three days later, she was declared dead.

For many Iranians, the brutality of law enforcement officers toward women accused of violating hijab rules was nothing new. And yet, Amini's death triggered an unprecedented outpouring of anger. Protesters all across the country took to the streets under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom." They marched for months, but the regime eventually managed to suppress the movement with a violent clampdown.

"From my perspective, the movement 'Woman, Life, Freedom' is the biggest social and cultural change in Iran in decades," the writer, poet and activist Pouran Nazemi told DW.

Iran uprising seen through the eyes of Iranian women

Nazemi's work as a women's rights activist has gotten her arrested several times in recent years. Still, she refuses to be intimidated.

She said the movement had clear goals right from the start: ending the hijab mandate and ending state violence against Iran's population. Though those goals were ultimately not met, the protests did lead many people to recognize their own power within the society.

"The institutions still use physical violence and occasional arrests against us," Nazemi said. "But something fundamental has changed."

Hijab law still under debate

Even now, amid the ongoing war with the United States, parts of the Iranian regime are still focusing on the hijab mandate. Many politicians are supporting a new bill which would introduce significantly stricter punishments for women violating the hijab order in public places.

One lawmaker described the missing head coverings as a "deep wound in the body of society."

Iranian women unveiled: A shift in hijab enforcement?

The proposed law has been in limbo for years and marked by wrangling between various state institutions.

I a virtual parliamentary session on September 6, several lawmakers urged Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf to pass the proposed legislation to the president for signing. 

New normal for young Iranians

A 17-year-old female student told DW that she doesn't even think about wearing a hijab in public. Like many other young women, the pupil is posting pictures and videos of herself in colorful skirts and summer clothing on social media. To her, this is the new normal.

"My mother is not wearing a hijab either," the student said. "She is still a bit afraid and always carries a scarf so she can cover up in an emergency." 

Even this degree of freedom would be hard to imagine just a few years ago. It was only after the 2022 protests that many woman started openly defying the government regulations and deciding for themselves if they wanted to cover up.

Decades of female resistance

Iranian women's resistance to the regime did not start with the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests. An important phase in the long history of dissidenceplayed out 20 years ago, the women's rights activist and writer Mansoureh Shojaee told DW.

Along with other Iranian activists and feminists, Shojaee started the "One Million Signatures" campaign in 2006. The goal was for a million people to sign a petition to change laws that discriminate against women. This campaign became an important role model for feminist activism and societal mobilization in Iran.

Activists went into the streets — and to universities, neighborhoods and private homes. They talked to people about divorce, custody, inheritance, court testimony, and polygamy. They also set up workshops, study groups and other cultural and media events.

Nobel Prize winners among activists facing repression

From the very beginning, the initiative was met with massive state repression. Activists were summoned by the police, arrested and dragged through courts. In the years that followed, authorities raided and shut down a rights NGO run by  Shirin Ebadi, a lawyer and advocate for women and children who in 2003 became the first Iranian to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Ebadi's deputy at the Defenders of Human Rights Center, Narges Mohammadi — the winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize — was arrested multiple times over the years. The women's rights activist and journalist Mansoureh Shojaee fled the country in 2011, as have many dissidents over the years.

Fleeing Iran for freedom

Shojaee now lives in the Netherlands.

The activists never met their goal of reaching 1 million signatures. Still, they managed to change the conversation about the legal and social position of women. For this reason, Shojaee does not see the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement as a full-on break with the past, but only as one of the chapters in the much longer story of Iran's resistance.