A revolutionary storm sparked by the fall of a butterfly

Abstract

The formation of a theocratic state in Iran after the 1979 revolution has had profound and lasting ramifications within the country and beyond. This article presents a renewed Marxist feminist analysis of Iran’s quest for freedom and democracy in the context of the rise of theocratic capitalism. I contend that Jîna’s Uprising implores us to revisit the symbiotic relations between Islamic fundamentalism and capitalist imperialism. This crucial connection is often overlooked in historical accounts and theoretical analysis.

Keywords:

• Iran
• Jîna’s Uprising
• Marxist Feminism

Acknowledgements

I am thankful for insightful comments that I received on the earlier version of this paper from Jamie Magnusson, Sara Carpenter, and the editors of this journal, Kanishka Goonewardena and Anna Zalik. An earlier version of this paper was delivered as a keynote address at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), Exeter University, United Kingdom, July 3, 2023.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Bromley, “Giving Memory a Future.”

2 Carpenter and Mojab, Educating from Marx.

3 Seyed Mohammad-Amin Shaikholislami Mukri, better known by his pen name Hemin Mukriyani or Hêmin Mukriyānī (1921–1986). See Ghaderi, Scalbert Yücel, and Ali, Women’s Voices from Kurdistan, 23. The poem is much longer and the full version can be found here: https://books.vejin.net/ck/text/1237.

4 Komala: Komełey Şorrişgêrrî Zehmetkêşanî Kurdistanî Êran (Revolutionary Organization of the Toilers of Iranian Kurdistan).

5 This haunting sense urged me to create and curate The Archive of Defiance (http://archiveofdefiance.com), which is an aesthetically inspired resource for transnational feminist teaching, research, and activism. Selected visual materials representing Woman, Life, Freedom / Jin, Jiyan, Azadi are curated based on the art forms, and where necessary a brief description of the content, artists’ names, place, date, and time is provided. Revolutionary feminist “defiance” constitutes the core theoretical, political, and pedagogical anchor of this archive.

6 Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, “Iran’s Uprisings.”

7 For the most recent report on the state violence, see the Amnesty International report, available https://www.amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/iran-one-year-after-the-woman-life-freedom-uprising. Accessed on September 2023.

8 See the Amnesty International report, available https://www.amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/iran-one-year-after-the-woman-life-freedom-uprising. Accessed on September 2023.

9 Mojab and Zia, “Race, Class, and Agency.”

10 Hanieh, Lineages of Revolt and Hanieh, Money, Markets, and Monarchies.

11 Carpenter and Mojab, “Gender, Race, and Class”; Mojab and Carpenter, “Marxism, Feminism, and ‘Intersectionality’”; Brown, States of Injury.

12 Mojab, “Theorizing the Politics” and Mojab, “In the Quagmires.” See also Moghissi, Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism.

13 Shi, “Defining My Own Oppression.”

14 Mojab and Zia, “Race, Class, and Agency.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shahrzad Mojab

Shahrzad Mojab teaches women and gender studies and education at the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.