Iran after 'Jin, jiyan, azadi' resistance: Women do not wait, they build 

2025-09-15 10:05:29


	 

	ISTANBUL – Iranian actress Shaghayegh Norouzi stated that women turned into subjects after the "jin, jiyan, azadi (Women, life, freedom)" resistance, which left behind its 3rd year, and said, "Women are no longer waiting for change, they are building it". 

	 

	It has been 3 years since Jina Emînî was murdered in Iran. She left behind a spirit of resistance and social revolt with her "jin, jiyan, azadî" protests. The slogan "jin jiyan azadî", which has spread from Iran to the whole world and is described as a "manifesto of freedom", continues to inspire women's actions and struggle for freedom.

	 

	Iranian actress and feminist activist Shaghayegh Norouzi evaluated the protests that are remembered as the "jin, jiyan, azadî" resistance and the struggle of women. 

	 

	'JÎNA WAS THE SPARK THAT IGNITED ANGER'

	 

	Shaghayegh Norouzi stated that the resistance was not only the result of a death, but also the result of the silencing of women and the denial of their voice. Shaghayegh Norouzi noted that Jina Emînî's death ignited the anger that had been building up in society for years and was the result of years of underground organising and feminist training. 

	 

	"On that day, the state killed a woman, but society realised that this killing was the rule, not the exception. If there was to be a life to live, it had to start with the struggle for women's freedom," she said. 

	 

	'WOMEN TURNED INTO SUBJECTS'

	 

	Shaghayegh Norouzi pointed out that women led the "Jin, jiyan, azadi" resistance and noted that the forms and means of struggle developed after the resistance. Shaghayegh Norouzi stressed that for the first time in the history of Iran, an uprising emerged from women and the streets of poor neighbourhoods and that women were at the forefront of the resistance. She added: “Women's leadership was not only about being present on the streets, but also about changing the political narrative. They transformed women from a passive victim role into a revolutionary subject." 

	 

	Shaghayegh Norouzi stated that women's lives also changed after the resistance and emphasised that women wrote their own rules and changed men as they saw that the legal and political order did not change. She said that this effect is not reflected in general, but women are still building their independent spaces. 

	 

	'THERE IS ALSO RESISTANCE AGAINST WAR' 

	 

	Shaghayegh Norouzi said that women's awareness and resistance frightened the regime and that the regime's repression was afraid of women's power of analysis and leadership: "This fear has turned into violence. The Islamic Republic no longer even claims to 'protect the family'. She is no longer only dangerous, but a strategic threat to the regime's ideological order." 

	 

	Shaghayegh Norouzi noted that women have become "Iran's sharpest political actors" after the "Jin, jiyan, azadi" resistance, and emphasised that women also took a clear stance in the Israeli attack, saying that women said that freedom would not come with occupation. 

	 

	Shaghayegh Norouzi concluded: "Women are resisting not only the Islamic Republic but also imperialism, racism, economic inequality and warmongering. Today's Iranian feminism has become the voice of all the oppressed, not only in Iran, but also in Palestine, Afghanistan and in the heart of exile. The resistance of Iranian women is not only for the liberation of their bodies, but also to reclaim their future, which has been stolen for decades."

	 

	MA / Yeşim Tükel