Description
The death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 triggered nationwide protests in Iran, bringing global attention to Iran. While these public acts were powerful, this research examines the quieter, everyday forms of resistance that often go unnoticed. Under an authoritarian order shaped by religious rule and long-running sanctions, women face dense constraints that narrow the space for overt protest. Drawing on 10 semi-structured interviews with Iranian women across different ages and backgrounds, I explore how they navigate gendered controls and resist them, often in private settings. Subtle practices - small dress choices, coded speech, and acts of emotional resilience – contest gendered power and renegotiate the boundaries of state authority.
By analysing lived experiences through the lens of feminist and everyday politics, this highlights that repression acts as a channeling mechanism: it relocates the site of contention from streets to private space. This repression also works as an unintended catalyst: it deepens ties, builds skills of evasion, and cultivates durable routines of resistance over time. Resistance persists and often strengthens through mundane practices of survival, care, and quiet defiance. This study contributes to International Studies by theorising how authoritarian power both redirects and ignites everyday resistance in repressive contexts.
