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11. Anti-Government Demonstrations in Iran: A Long-Term Challenge for the Islamic Republic

Author:
Dana Sammy
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
Abstract:
Iran was rocked by mass demonstrations triggered by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini — a young Kurdish woman — while in the custody of the Guidance Patrol (also known as the ‘morality police’) for allegedly violating the hijab dress code. Protests over the mandatory hijab rule soon coalesced around a wide range of grievances with the regime, with participants demanding protections for civil, political, and human rights and calling for an end to the Islamic Republic. Although street demonstrations have subsided for the time being, how the protest movement will evolve — and how it will impact the stability of the Islamic Republic — remains an open question. This report explores potential answers to this question by examining notable trends and implications of the wave of demonstrations that unfolded in the country between September and December 2022. It argues that several emerging aspects of the nationwide movement may pose a long-term challenge to the regime. The demonstrations following Amini’s death were not only unique in regard to their geographical spread and longevity, but also in the way they brought together different segments of society with both distinct and overlapping grievances. Moreover, amid a harsh crackdown by Iranian authorities, engagement in violence by demonstrators has trended upward: between mid-September and December 2022, ACLED records the highest number of violent demonstration events for any round of nationwide demonstrations in Iran since the beginning of data collection in 2016. The increased use of Molotov cocktails and the killing of dozens of security personnel are among the most significant trends in demonstration violence observed in the latest round of events. The demonstrations did not reach a critical mass necessary to pose an immediate threat to the survival of the regime. Yet, this latest round in a sequence of increasingly violent demonstrations is indicative of growing resentment in Iranian society against the ruling elites and a willingness to express it forcefully despite severe repression. As the regime refuses to reform, the growing frequency and intensity of demonstrations suggests that the government will find itself in an increasingly unstable domestic position and increasingly isolated in the international arena.
Topic:
Government, Human Rights, Women, State Violence, and Protests
Political Geography:
Iran and Middle East

12. “Scent of a woman”: Women as a crucial factor in the upcoming Turkish elections

Author:
Evangelos Areteos
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
Abstract:
The female vote is one of the decisive factors in the 14 May elections. The government coalition now includes parties with highly problematic views on women and women’s rights. Housewives comprise the AKP’s female stronghold, but the tide is changing. Women in Turkey are unhappy, anxious and pessimistic.
Topic:
Elections, Women, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and AKP
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

13. Women and the Iraq War, 20 Years Later: The Consequences of War, Sanctions, and Occupation for Women and the Continuing Struggle for Women’s Rights

Author:
David Cortright, Anna Romandash, and Marcelle Al-Zoughbi
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Fourth Freedom Forum
Abstract:
This report marks 20 years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. It recounts the impacts of war and critiques the strategy of using military intervention to enhance women’s rights. It is presented in the spirit of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, which urges all actors to “adopt a gender perspective.” Our analysis traces the deterioration of social and economic conditions for women caused by U.S. policy and the resulting rise of extremism and sectarian warfare. We also address the role of Iraqi women in mobilizing movements to assert their rights and oppose violence. In telling this story, we rely extensively on the voices of Iraqi women who experienced and studied these events. A gender perspective means going beyond the view of women as victims to address the political agency of women as they struggle for political, economic, and social justice. We use “feminist discovery” to examine the lived experience of Iraqi women and gain a better understanding of the realities of war.1 This report draws lessons for the future of U.S. and international security policy and examines the agenda for women’s rights today as defined by Iraqi women and their international supporters.
Topic:
War, Women, Feminism, and Iraq War
Political Geography:
Iraq, Middle East, and United States of America

14. Our Living Archives, Our Elders

Author:
Samar Saeed and Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
Abstract:
When Samar and Laila met in 2006 during their undergraduate studies at George Mason University, they quickly discovered their shared Palestinian heritage. Samar, a Jordanian-Palestinian born in Kuwait, moved from Jordan to the United States in 2004 to pursue her studies. Laila, a Palestinian-American, was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and grew up in Virginia. Since Laila’s family lived close by and Samar was far from home, Laila invited her new friend—as per Arab hospitality—for a home-cooked meal to meet her family. Over dinner, Laila’s grandmother, teta Najwa Abdel-Hadi, the matriarch of the family, occupied the central seat facing Samar and started questioning her guest about her family and grandparents, a custom that every Palestinian grandma follows when meeting friends of grandchildren. “My grandma is from the Ramini family in Jenin and my grandfather is from the Askary family in Jerusalem,” Samar said. Najwa opened her eyes widely and shouted, “inti sittik Fatimah Ramini?” Is your grandmother Fatimah Al-Ramini? Samar, surprised, answered: “yes, you know her?” To which Najwa responded: “Of course, I do. And I know her sisters. We were teachers!” This discovery of their shared past turned the conversation to storytelling by teta Najwa who began sharing with the two friends her story of growing up in Nablus, the family home where she spent her days, the streets she walked, the places she picnicked with friends, her journey as a teacher, and her travels. Some of the stories were familiar to her granddaughter Laila, while others were new. Najwa shared with them her golden rules about friendships and marriage—the latter of which she referred to as the “golden cage.” Najwa reminisced about Palestine, a place from which she still recalls her favorite memories despite not having lived there since the 1960s.
Topic:
Women, History, Archives, and Elders
Political Geography:
Middle East and Palestine

15. Why We Teach History

Author:
Judith Tucker and Mustafa Aksakal
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
Abstract:
Almost a decade ago, MAAS faculty from across disciplines began to notice, in their teaching about politics, economics, society, and culture, that many of our students came to the study of the contemporary Arab World with a limited sense of the genealogies of the challenges facing the region today. They felt that, while the Arab people, like all people, are not hapless victims of the past, those studying the region cannot afford to ignore the ways in which the world today has been shaped by complex forces of history, especially since these forces—for better and for worse—can both expand and circumscribe present possibilities, as well as the ability to imagine different futures. In seeking ways to help our students develop thinking about current issues that bring the richness of historical context to bear, MAAS faculty designed the historical survey course ARST 500 and launched it in 2014. We created the course not only to challenge simplistic “presentism,” whereby the past is viewed solely through the distorting lens of contemporary concerns and projects, but also to study history as a path to analyzing the deep roots of the issues we confront in the world today—many of which originated in former times when different political arrangements and world views held sway.
Topic:
History, Social Movement, and Women
Political Geography:
Middle East and Arab Countries

16. Covering the Greater Middle East Crisis: The Problematic Representation of Cultural and Political Issues in International Media

Author:
Giacomo Buoncompagni
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Review of Human Rights
Institution:
Society of Social Science Academics (SSSA)
Abstract:
Through the analysis of international media content, this study focuses on two phases of the recent Afghan history and its media representation—the end of the American military campaign and the beginning of the new Taliban government. Specifically, the analysis involves two questions: first, how the Western mainstream media publicly narrated the crisis following the establishment of the Taliban government; second, how the voices of Afghan women and journalists were reported within the news environment. Focusing on two dimensions, political and cultural, the article argues that the country has embarked on a process of "de-modernization," which needs to be checked.
Topic:
Human Rights, Politics, Religion, Women, Media, and Gender
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Middle East, and Taliban

17. Silence kills! Victim-blaming social norms and violence against women

Author:
Sevinç Bermek, Konstantinos Matakos, and Asli Unan
Publication Date:
07-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
Abstract:
Despite its huge social, psychological and economic costs, gender-based, intimate partner violence (IPV) is a phenomenon that persists in many countries. IPV is often not actively contested by society the persistence of victim-blaming norms might increase its social acceptability and thus hinter policy and behavior change. Are persisting victim-blaming attitudes and lack of action/policy support because of differences in own values or social norms? This paper examines the role of patriarchy values and social norms on gender attitudes towards and action/policy support regarding intimate partner violence. We conducted an online survey experiment in which a sample of 4,000 respondents in Turkey –a country with the highest IPV prevalence among OECD members– was randomly assigned to receive hypothetical IPV scenario treatment with or without invocation of social norms, or control. Simply making the existence of a social norm salient (by eliciting respondents’ incentivized beliefs on what the majority/others think) increased support for policies to combat IPV by 3 to 4 percentage points compared to the control group. Our results suggest that while patriarchal attitudes are rather immovable and better at predicting own attitudes towards gender-based IPV, social norms do a much better job at changing policy preferences and (incentivized) behavior. Thus, policy change is possible even if individual patriarchy values are relatively stable. These findings highlight the need to consider the role of social norms when designing policies to tackle IPV. By exploiting our dynamic information-updating design, we also find strong convergence of individuals’ attitudes (on gender-based violence) to the elicited social norms.
Topic:
Women, Gender Based Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, Survey, and Social Norms
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

18. Gender Apartheid in Iran: Foreign Policy Responses

Author:
Jacqui True and Alison Ross
Publication Date:
09-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Women's Development Agency (IWDA)
Abstract:
One year after the “Women, Life, Liberty” protests in Iran following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, Iranian women’s rights activists and international human rights experts have united to denounce the brutal Islamic Republic and call for the international recognition of “gender apartheid”. Countries with values-based foreign policy – including feminist foreign policy - that aims to promote human rights and gender equality can and should support this call, in alliance with like-minded countries. “We must constantly keep our goal in sight. Our path to freedom will necessarily lead to the removal of the Islamic Republic and the elimination of political Islam from the (sphere of) governance” – Bahareh Hedayat1 In September 2022 an unprecedented, nationwide uprising in Iran began following the extrajudicial killing in detention of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini, who was arrested for not wearing her hijab “properly.” The national uprising prompted the first Middle Eastern revolutionary movement led by women and motivated by women’s demands for fundamental human rights. The slogan of the movement highlighted that women’s emancipation is the basis for democracy in Iran and the toppling of Islamic fundamentalism in the region: “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi / Women, Life, Freedom!” Global public opinion and media rallied behind the uprising. The movement has its roots in women’s protests in Tehran against the compulsory hijab immediately after the establishment of the Islamic Republic (IR) in 1979. Iranian women have realized that their dignity and rights are irreconcilable with the IR. Young women mobilized the entire society – people of all ages, groups and regions and restored their courage to stand up to their oppressors. The shooting of more than 500 peaceful protesters on the streets, including 70 children in response to the movement, exposed the true nature of the extremist Islamic regime.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Apartheid, Human Rights, Women, Protests, and Gender
Political Geography:
Iran and Middle East

19. Speaking Up: The role of women in building peace in Yemen

Author:
Fatma Jaffar
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This paper brings the voices of Yemeni women forward. Women were active in the 2011 protests, influencing political developments at key junctures. However, subsequent armed conflicts militarized the political environment and pushed forward a more limited religious agenda that saw more and more women systematically marginalized in the process. This paper outlines these major trends and offers some key recommendations to the government and wider international community to better support women’s participation in peace negotiations and involvement in the Yemeni political arena.
Topic:
Women, Leadership, Peacebuilding, and Gender Justice
Political Geography:
Middle East and Yemen

20. Iran and its Discontents: Revolutionary Women and Minorities in 2022

Author:
Pouya Alimagham and Ciara Moezidis
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Harvard Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
On September 16, 2022, the death of Mahsa Jina Amini ignited protests across Iran under the banner of “woman, life, freedom.” Initially, Amini was arrested for violating the mandatory dress code in which women are legally required to cover their hair. She died in government custody, leading her family and countless Iranians to allege that she was beaten.[1] What became known as the “hijab protests” quickly morphed to encompass wider social and political demands, including calls for the wholesale overthrow of the system that routinely intrudes into the daily lives of Iranians. For months after her death, segments of Iranian society leveled ideological attacks against the government to delegitimize Iran’s polity as a whole. That is, they did not merely demand that the perpetrators of Amini’s death be brought to justice but held the entire system responsible. Activists have been met with government repression, including internet blackouts, a dragnet that has ensnared approximately 20,000 people, and the death of 522 people, of whom 70 were children.[2] An additional 110 face execution.[3] 61 security personnel have also been killed in clashes with protesters.[4] Despite the crackdown, protesters have demonstrated such totalizing opposition in numerous ways, most notably by wielding the hijab–the Islamic veil–in counterintuitive ways that subverted the state.
Topic:
Social Movement, Minorities, Women, and Protests
Political Geography:
Iran and Middle East