The Women’s Movement and State Responses to Contentious Campaigns in Iran

Abstract

Drawing on Tilly and Tarrow’s theory of Contentious Politics, this chapter analyses the mechanisms employed for women’s empowerment in Iran. Since the decline of the reform movement in the mid-2000s, the women’s movement has focused its efforts on ‘contentious campaigns.’ Two noteworthy initiatives are analysed in this chapter: the One Million Signatures Campaign (OMSC) (2006–?) and the Campaign to Change the Male Face of Parliament (2015–2016). Both campaigns demobilised despite not having reached their goals following heavy state crackdowns. The author shows how the women’s movement has been influenced by the state: in response to varying degrees of opportunity and threat from above, activists have employed combinations of contained (Islamic feminism) and transgressive (secular feminism) forms of contention. The retrospective analysis of both popular campaigns suggests that Iran’s volatile political landscape has trapped the women’s movement in a game of ‘cat and mouse’ with the regime, seriously inhibiting its ability to plan and deploy long-term strategies for change that can sustain pressure from above.