Three years ago, on 13 September 2022, a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, was arrested in Tehran for her “improper” hijab. Three days later, she died in hospital.
Her funeral in her hometown turned into a protest, with mourners chanting “Woman, Life, Freedom”—a slogan rooted in the Kurdish women’s movement. Soon, the slogan echoed across the country. From east to west and north to south, Iranians outraged by Mahsa Jina’s death and fed up with the theocratic authoritarianism of the regime poured into the streets and clashed with security forces.
This uprising sparked by the death of a young woman, represented by a slogan about women, and led by young girls and women on the frontlines marked the opening of a new era for Iran and quickly gained admiration worldwide.
Iranian women transformed global perceptions of Middle Eastern women through their bravery and leadership. Long portrayed in Western media as voiceless and oppressed, they were now seen as leading a movement, with men following their call. This uprising was historic: for the first time, women stood at the forefront of a revolution, and men rallied firmly behind them.
And yet, despite the historic courage of Iranian women, support from many global feminist groups was hesitant, muted, or absent.
In an interview with TVNZ at the time, I criticised the silence of many feminists—including New Zealand’s then–Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. I argued that this silence stemmed from fear of being accused of Islamophobia.
I believed, since the movement’s most visible symbol was resistance to compulsory hijab, many feminists, despite privately sympathising, strategically avoided open support to prevent backlash from Muslim communities.
Reflecting three years later, however, I see that the silence was not merely pragmatic. These so-called feminists did not endorse the movement because it ran counter to their leftist ideals of anti-imperialism, anti-Western politics, and discourses of “authentic” indigenous culture.
Since the 1980s, with the rise of postmodernism and third-wave feminism, feminist work has increasingly emphasised cultural specificity, authenticity, and postcolonial critiques of the West. At the same time, with the rise of Islamism an alliance was created between feminists and Islamists.
Within the postmodern framework of diversity and indigenous identity, Islam was promoted as the “authentic culture” of Muslim societies. Cultural relativism allowed gender inequality to be reframed as cultural difference, while multiculturalism enabled Islamists and their allies to dismiss criticism as Islamophobia.
Half a century later, this intellectual climate—shaped by cultural relativism, multiculturalism, anti-imperialism, and discourses of authenticity—still continues to shape both academic and activist circles in the West. Its bitter fruits are now plain to see.
Within this context, Woman, Life, Freedom appears disruptive to hegemonic feminist discourses. However progressive it is—both in essence and in slogan—it does not seem to qualify for endorsement as it lacks the expected anti-Western component.
Iranian women have stood up against a patriarchal theocracy that has ruled their country for over four decades. They demand personal freedoms—the right to choose their clothing, to sing, to dance—alongside political rights to hold office and become judges, and family rights in matters of child custody and divorce.
Yet these demands, apparently, are not enough to garner full support. To be legitimised, feminist struggles in the Middle East are expected to carry anti-imperialist slogans or claims to cultural authenticity against the West.
By contrast, Iranian women not only rejected such binaries, they directly resisted hijab—the very symbol of “authentic” Middle Eastern womanhood promoted for decades by Islamists and defended by many Western feminists.
Woman, Life, Freedom shattered the essentialist portrayals of Middle Eastern women constructed by 19th-century Orientalists and 20th-century progressive leftists. Though for different reasons, both depicted Middle Eastern women as fundamentally opposed to Western women: the former as backward and exotic, the latter as authentic and indigenous. In both cases, the intracultural diversity of voices and beliefs was denied.
However, as Woman, Life, Freedom has made clear, the time for such binaries is over. In today’s globalised world, cultures and identities are hybrid, fluid, and dynamic—not static, essential, or reducible to West versus East.
Iranian women have demonstrated extraordinary courage in confronting both authoritarian rule and entrenched patriarchy. Their demands are not abstract; they concern daily realities of safety, equality, and freedom.
If feminism means to remain a movement primarily focused on achieving gender equality and addressing women’s issues, it must be able to respond to women’s struggles beyond ideological and political boundaries.