THE BRIEF §§§i§

§§,§N women-led movements tend to be

Whywomen-ted protests more difficult to suppress with brute
force-though this hasn't stopped the
are more successful regime from trying.
BY YASMEEN SERHAN "It's the ordinariness of women's
participation that has all ofthese
knock-on effects," says Zoe Marks,
THE TRADITIONAL MOURNING PERIOD IN IRAN LASTS an expert on nonviolent mass move-
4o days. Since widespread protests began two months ago, ments at Harvard's Kennedy School of
following the death of Mahsa Amini, that period of mourn- Government. Marks adds that move-
ing hasn't ceased. That's because hundreds oflranians have ments that heavily feature women are
died since the protests began. also more likely to lead to defections
The predominantly women- and youth-led demonstra- among both members and support-
tions, and their clarion call for "woman, Iife, liberty," have ers of a regime, in large part because
touched nearly every corner of lranian society-and show women may make movements seem
no signs of slowing down. That protests led by and for more sympathetic.
women could persist for this long would have been pre-
viously unthinkable in Iran, which has for decades been srrr,l,, wHAT coMEs Nnxr for Iran
ruled under the iron fist of Supreme Leader AIi Khamenei. Awoman at an is less clear. one of the biggest chal-
But the centrality of women in these protests matters for Oct. 1 protest in lenges facing these protests is articu-
reasons that go beyond representation or equality. Ac- Tehranflashes latinga vision for the kind ofgovern-
cording to scholars of civil resistance, high levels of female a peace sign ment that can replace the regime. "We
participation tend to make mass don't have unified lead-
movements more inclusive, inno- ership in and outside
vative, nonviolent, and, crucially, ofthe country, and this
more likely to achieve their goals. is a big weakness," says
The question facing Iran is whether Fatemeh Haghighatjoo,
that will again be the case. awomen's-rights ad-
For Iran, the leading role of vocate and former law-
women in the ongoing protests maker in Iran.
was not a matter of design so Perhaps the worst-
much as circumstance. The cre- case scenario is a re-
ation of the Islamic Republic in turn to somethingeven
1979 sharply curtailed women's harsher than the sta-
rights in the country-including tus quo. "Our research
through the mandatory wearing shows that when move-
ments do not achieve
of the hijab. That women emerged
as the primary mobilizers be-
I their maximum objec-
hind the current protests comes tive and there's been
down to the fact that "women just extensive women's
had so much more to lose," says participation, there's
Mona Tajali, an Iranian scholar of almost always a regres-
gender and politics. sion or a backlash in
While the Islamic Republic has seen larger gender equity and democracy after
demonstrations-notably the Green Movement of zoog- the movement ends," says Marks.
it hasn't seen a movement as seemingly widespread or as She warns that "there is still a sig-
demographically diverse as this, or one that has gone on nificant minority of movements that,
nearly as long. Protests have occurred in some r44 cities, even with over 5o% female participa-
including regime strongholds. "Men are seeing that wom- tion, fail."
en's interests and their demands for gender equality and 6Women But as Haghighatjoo and others see
non-gènder discrimination falls in line with the larger pro- it, the revolutionary mood is unlikely
democratic, pro-human-rights demands that the larger so- just had to be quelled-even if the protests are.
ciety has," says Tajali. so much "Most people who experienced the
Though mid-November brought a surge of street bat- 1979 revolution say this condition is
tles, movements that involve many women are more
mofe like 1978, the year leading to the revo-
likely to utilize innovative and nonviolent methods that to lose.' lution," she says. "I am hopeful that
go beyond street protests-cutting their hair and burn- _MONA TAJAII, people will succeed. But it may take a
ing their headscarves, in the case oflran. It also helps that IRANIAN SCHOLAR couple of years." u
14 TIME December5/Decemberr2,2022'