Across Iran, a significant political unrest is taking place as Iranian people from all backgrounds take to the streets, challenging a system that has for decades sought to control their bodies, silence dissent, and crush resistance. The protests we are witnessing right now first emerged in late December 2025 as demonstrations against soaring inflation and rising costs of living. The protests spread across cities, growing into a semi-revolution with widespread demands for political change and the rejection of the theocratic regime that has long controlled people’s personal and collective freedoms and rights, especially the bodies and lives of women, girls and members of LGBTQIA+ community, especially those at the intersections of underrepresented ethnic or religious groups.
At the heart of these protests is again the powerful slogan of "Women, Life, Freedom", which has been carried forward by Iranian women since the uprising following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini in 2022. The Women, Life, Freedom movement, did not achieve change in laws or narratives of the Islamic Republic, but did impact the society on many levels, including the disobedience of compulsory hijab as an everyday activism. At the recent uprising too, we can see Iranian women and girls bravely defying compulsory hijab laws and resisting the regime’s surveillance despite facing brutal state violence.
The theocratic regime’s oppression of women and girls extends far beyond mandatory veiling. Iran's 2021 "Youthful Population and Protection of the Family" law severely restricts access to contraception and abortion, bans free distribution of contraceptives and voluntary sterilization, except when a pregnancy threatens the pregnant person’s health. The regime has established anti-abortion centers in 250 cities, creating intervention groups that operate in locations frequented by pregnant persons, including pregnancy diagnosis labs, gynaecologists and hospitals.
Since January 8, Iranian authorities have imposed a complete internet and telecommunication connectivity shutdown, cutting access to information. This communication blackout not only puts those needing urgent healthcare, including people with chronic diseases and pregnant people, at risk, but also isolates the people of Iran as they face the danger of a violent state crackdown.
As the protests gain momentum across Iran and state violence escalates, so does the threat of foreign military intervention. US President Trump has declined to “take military action off the table” against Iran. Additionally, with Israel’s ongoing tensions with Iran and their alliance with the US, any external military intervention will put Iranian people at greater risk. History has shown, foreign military intervention, especially in the name of protecting civilians,“women’s rights” or “minority liberation” does not lead to emancipation, but often harms the very people it claims to protect.
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The much-needed change in the regime must give power to the people and not further deprive any Iranian of their fundamental rights. Sexuality must never again be used to oppress Iranian women, girls, and LGBTI+ people’s full rights and freedom. - Soudeh Rade, Executive Director, SPECTRUM
Whatever political transition emerges in the country, it must not simply transfer patriarchal control over the country—the control of dreams, rights and bodies—from one set of hands to another. The voices of Iranian civil society, queer community and feminists who have been leading the Women, Life, Freedom movement must be at the centre of any future political framework.
Iranians too, especially women, girls and gender-diverse people, deserve to have a future free from state control over people's fundamental human rights, including sexual and reproductive rights. Sexuality has been central to the theocratic regime’s oppressive policies—whether through mandatory veiling, forced marriage, reproductive coercion, or denial of reproductive healthcare. The Women Life Freedom movement has been demanding the liberation of Iranian women, their bodily autonomy and rights central to it. Those cannot be guaranteed under the Islamic Republic of Iran’s political system, as gender discrimination is the founding pillar of this regime.
Soudeh Rade, Executive Director of SPECTRUM, IPPF’s partner advocating for SRHR, freedom, and equality in Iran, notes, “Iranian women have been at the heart of the Women, Life, Freedom movement and the ongoing protests, rooted in the demand for freedom, equality, bodily autonomy – the right to dress and live how we want. The much-needed change in the regime must give power to the people and not further deprive any Iranian of their fundamental rights. Sexuality must never again be used to oppress Iranian women, girls, and LGBTI+ people’s full rights and freedom. They are not a call for so-called liberation-interventions.”
In South Asia, recent anti-government protests and regime changes have seen the deterioration of the fundamental rights of people, especially women, girls and gender-diverse groups, along with those historically put at the margins. In Afghanistan, decades of conflict, foreign military intervention, led to the resurgence of Taliban and the near-total erasure of Afghan women and queer people from public life, restricting access to education for girls and more. In Bangladesh, political instability following mass anti-government protests have resulted in greater anti-feminist and anti-LGBTI+ sentiment in the country.
The Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran continues to resist patriarchal state control. Any change in Iran must centre their leadership and the principles. We stand in feminist solidarity with all Iranians seeking freedom, including women, girls and gender-diverse people, who are shaping the future of Iran with extraordinary courage.
Featured image courtesy: Viktoria Bykanova/Shutterstock
