In Iran’s 2022–2023 “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, women’s bodies quite literally became battlefields.
The protest movement erupted after the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini, who was arrested by Iran’s morality police for improperly wearing a hijab.
Her death became a powerful symbol of the government’s patriarchal control over women’s bodies, and ignited protests that exposed the regime’s use of sexual violence as a weapon of repression.
