Iran’s New Revolutionary Figure Is Feminist

The Women at the Heart of the Movement Offer Potent Visions of Social Change

The feminist uprising in Iran—sparked by the beating, arrest, and death in police custody of Mahsa (also known by Jîna) Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman accused of “improper hijab”—is generating previously unimagined ideas, images, and possibilities. The current movement, led by women and girls, has forced us all to rethink the glorified figure of the revolutionary as a militant, often militarized, and individual masculine subject. It also invites us to understand the complex history of women’s struggle in Iran—not as counterpoised to or lagging behind Western feminism, but rather …

Who Knew My Canadian Friend Was Hiding Hostages?

Ben Affleck’s Gripping Argo Takes Me Back to Iran in 1979

On November 4, 1979, Iranian Islamic radicals overran the grounds of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and captured the diplomatic personnel inside, kicking off a crisis that would last 444 …