New Delhi: When Sedigheh Vasmaghi, one of Iran’s foremost female religious scholars, was invited by BBC Persia last week to comment on the country’s latest ‘hijab bill’, no one was prepared for what she would do — appear in the newscast without a headscarf.
Her decision to reveal her hair to the world was an act of rebellion against a government angling to pass even more stringent laws and fines for women and girls who break Iran’s strict dress code. It came days after an important event that has emboldened and empowered women in Iran: This year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to prominent Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, who is currently serving a 10-year prison term. Her perseverance and courage are inspiring hundreds of women across Iran to keep up the fight, despite considerable pressure from the government.
“Narges has expanded the geography of fighting against patriarchy—from the home, to the streets, to prisons, and to the diaspora,” said veteran human rights activist, writer, and researcher Mansoureh Shojaee, who is also a friend of Mohammadi.
Vasmaghi’s interview also came a year after the entire country erupted in protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in custody after being arrested by the morality police for an allegedly improper hijab. Now, a bill, introduced in September 2023, aims to increase prison terms for ‘inappropriate’ clothing—up to 10 years in jail.
While the scale of last year’s protests—where women took to the streets of Tehran and other cities and burned their headscarves—has subsided, Iranian women are still finding everyday ways to protest the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei-led conservative regime.
And jailed human rights activist Mohammadi has been the wind beneath their wings. She has been a formidable public figure in Iran, fighting for gender equality and human rights and spearheading the massive protests in 2022. The establishment has arrested her multiple times to muzzle her voice—while driving other dissidents like her husband to live in exile outside the country. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs even condemned the Nobel Prize as a biased political move.
“We are all honoured by her winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Now we can continue to work under its safe shadow,” said Shojaee.
But Mohammadi’s win is “first and foremost a recognition of a whole movement in Iran with its undisputed leader Narges Mohammadi,” according to the Nobel Committee. And Iranian women and activists see their struggle reflected in her win.
“Narges is the best symbol for this prize,” added Shojaee, who has been living in exile in the Netherlands since 2014. “It draws global attention to Iran. Now Iranian women, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, can continue their work towards equality, justice, and freedom.”
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Woman, life, freedom
When Shirin Ebadi—an Iranian lawyer who was the first Muslim woman Nobel Peace Prize laureate—won a human rights award in 2010, she dedicated it to her colleague Narges Mohammadi.
“This courageous woman deserves this award more than I do,” she said.
And in 2023, 20 years after Ebadi won it, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Mohammadi.
Ebadi founded the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran in 2001 but has lived in exile in London since 2009. Mohammadi, an engineer-turned-activist, began working at Ebadi’s foundation in 2003.
“Narges is a true fighter,” said Behrouz Afagh, international media consultant, who was head of the BBC World Service‘s Asia & Pacific Region. “She’s not your typical human rights activist, who comes from a legal background. Her politics have evolved and developed over the decades,” he added.
He describes Mohammadi as a formidable woman with a strong, powerful public presence because her work has been relentless. Her bravery is remarkable because she’s seen speaking out against the regime everywhere—from within prison, at rallies, visiting the homes of people who’ve been victims and even at people’s funerals. Her fight isn’t restricted to gender equality: She also raises awareness and campaigns against the death penalty, torture, solitary confinement, and religious oppression.
“Narges Mohammadi winning the Nobel Prize is a very clear sign that the voice of Iran’s civil society is heard and recognised by the wider world,” said Afagh. “And it’s very encouraging to everyone in Iran who’s struggling against the oppression, through the movement of ‘women, life, freedom’.”
While Mohammadi belongs to a previous generation of activists, her work proved integral to mobilising the Zan, Zendegi, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom) protests in Iran in 2022, which were triggered by Amini’s death.
The widespread Mahsa Amini protests were historic because women played a key role in the movement, with thousands of women and girls taking to the streets, tossing away their hijabs, chanting “women, life, freedom,” and cutting their hair. Over 500 protestors — including children and teenagers — were killed in the violent crackdown that followed. Seven protestors were executed, while around 20,000 people were arrested. The protests caught global attention, as women across the world voiced their support for Iranian women.
Mohammadi is the fifth laureate to win while imprisoned. She has been arrested at least 13 times, convicted five times, and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, is “Iran’s most frequently jailed journalist,” according to Reporters Without Borders—he’s been living in exile with their two children in Paris for almost a decade. Both Mohammadi and her husband have been named Prisoners of Conscience by Amnesty International.
When the Nobel committee announced Mohammadi’s win, the speech began with the chant “women, life, freedom.”
“We have two Nobel Peace Prize winners from Iran,” said Shojaee. “One is in exile, one is in prison.”
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Building a blueprint
The importance of Mohammadi’s work lies in the blueprint she was building.
“Another generation took to the streets of Iran during ‘women, life, freedom’,” said Shojaee, who is twenty years older than Mohammadi. “It was neither mine nor Narges’s generation. But she still stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the women, whether in the streets or in prison.”
The work of Mohammadi and other activists like Nasrin Sotoudeh helped the movement take off, according to Shojai—it gave them the foundation to build their fight.
“Everyone talks of her bravery. I know firsthand how brave she is,” said Shojaee. “But one of Narges’s most beautiful characteristics is that she was always building a network, a blueprint, a roadmap for women. This kind of movement can lack organisation, and there’s no institution that can mobilise such large groups. That’s why I insist on highlighting this characteristic—Narges took the task upon herself.”
A vocal critic of solitary confinement and the death penalty, she wrote a book in prison in 2022 called White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners, in which she interviewed twelve prisoners about their experiences. She’s reportedly very active in prison, constantly rallying women, and smuggling her writings out under the prison guards’ noses.
“This text is not intended as an elegy for Iranian women…Iranian women do not derive their credibility and legitimacy of struggle from the intensity of the oppression and discrimination they have endured, but rather from their continuous and courageous resistance and struggle for democracy, life, freedom, equality, human rights, and peace,” she wrote in a letter to CNN in July 2023. In September 2023, she managed to write a guest essay for the New York Times titled, ‘The More They Lock Us Up, the Stronger We Become’.
She’s also diligently been documenting testimonies of abuse, torture, rape, disappearance, and illness, sending them out of prison to activists across the globe to archive them.
“That’s why the state authorities arrested her: to keep her silent. But it hasn’t stopped Narges from meticulously documenting data—it is important for us to show fact-finding missions,” said Shojaee.
The last time she met Mohammadi was right before she left Tehran, in 2011. Mohammadi had just been released from prison and was ill in hospital, slipping in and out of consciousness. Shojaee went to meet her and say goodbye.
“She said to me, ‘Mansoureh, look, they want to disappear all of us, save yourself.’ And that was the message she gave to me.”
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Continuing the legacy
Mohammadi’s win has galvanised Iranian feminists and activists by drawing the world’s attention to women’s resistance.
Her book White Torture is receiving more interest, and more screenings of its documentary version have been organised. A recent editorial in the Seattle Times urged its readers to look towards her bravery to fight their despair over the current situation in Gaza.
The most recent recognition for her work comes from India: Mohammadi was awarded the Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice on Wednesday, conferred by the Mumbai-based NGO Harmony Foundation.
In November, her husband Taghi Rahmani and their twin children—who haven’t seen her since 2015 and last spoke to her over a year ago—will land in Mumbai to receive the award on her behalf.
In Iran, while the mass scale of the protests has dwindled, there are still several smaller strikes and sit-ins taking place, according to journalist Rana Rahimpour. Many retired people stage gatherings across various cities, and workers also have weekly protests. Women go out casually in cities, standing up to police when confronted.
“Although we don’t see street protests in the way we saw them last year, peaceful movements in Iran are in full force,” said Rahimpour.
Pointing to Vasmaghi’s appearance without the hijab, Rahimpour said it was yet another sign that shows how political the hijab has become.
““The demand for freedom is so widespread that even religious women are joining it,” said Rahimpour. “Some of those who are religious are taking now it off to show that they are against the regime.”
There’s also a culture of smart defiance of the regime, according to Afagh. And it’s almost always women at the forefront of it. Recalling the 2009 protests—the largest mass protests in Iran’s recent history until 2022—Afagh said that young women were always seen fighting with police and defending crowds from security forces. That’s why the 2022 protests were so remarkable: because it was entirely spearheaded by women.
“Resistance comes in various shapes and forms. Women are probably the most successful fighters against the regime, especially in the last year since the killing of Mahsa,” added Rahimpour.
Women now leave little messages for each other on post-it notes, sticking to them on electricity poles or public signs. Rahimpour paused to quote one that she saw fluttering in the wind in Tehran a few weeks ago.
“Every woman who goes out in the streets without their headscarf is restarting the revolution,” it read.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)