The Women's Movement in Revolutionary Iran: From 1979 to the Present

Description

In honor of International Women's Day, Narges Bajoghli, assistant professor of Middle Eastern studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, will moderate a conversation between three world-renowned experts on women and politics in Iran regarding the history and current status of the women's movement in the Islamic Republic for the Rethinking Iran series.

The women's movement was a crucial aspect of the revolutionary period. The panel will discuss its impact and how women's issues and collective action movements have evolved between 1979 and today.

Panelists include:

• Negar Mottahedeh, professor of literature at Duke University
• Sussan Tahmasebi, co-founder and executive director of FEMENA
• Kateh Vafadari, civil and political rights advocate

Lunch to be provided.

Negar Mottahedeh is a cultural critic and theorist specializing in interdisciplinary and feminist contributions to the fields of Middle Eastern studies and film and media studies. She has published five books on Iranian cinema, the history of reform, revolution, and the uses of various media in protest.

Sussan Tahmasebi is a leading women's rights advocate and expert from Iran. Her work has focused on promoting women's rights and peace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia. Tahmasebi is the co-founder and executive director of FEMENA, an organization that supports female human rights defenders, their organizations, and feminist movements in MENA and Asia. She is a founding member of the One Million Signatures Campaign, a grassroots effort working to end gender-based laws in Iran.

Kateh Vafadari was one of the central organizers of the March 1979 women's demonstrations that took place immediately after the Iranian revolution. She is a veteran civil and political rights advocate, a defender of women's rights, and a protagonist of independent socialist politics since the early 1970s. The six-day women's demonstrations she organized were one of the largest women's collective action movements in the modern history of the Middle East.