September 23rd - Catherine Sameh - (University of California, Irvine)

Thursday, September 26, 2024 - 12:00pm

Museum 345

 
Two years ago, an extraordinary uprising emerged in Iran in response to the brutal beating and ultimate death of Mahsa Jina Amini for “improper hijab.” Amini’s death at once unified many Iranians suffering under different forms of precarity and vulnerability. Multiple sectors of society poured into the streets to express their grievances against the state, including failed political reforms, mismanagement of the economy and healthcare, soaring inflation rates, environmental degradation, and the targeting of women, girls, and ethnic and religious minorities. Against the state’s multiple drives towards immiseration and death—intensified by cruel sanctions regimes—the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising generated bold feminist demands and beautiful, deeply joyful modes of protest and solidarity in the name of affirming life. This talk will consider how the uprising fundamentally transformed how we think about its key terms (woman, life, and freedom) and what it means when feminism is at the heart of a revolutionary movement.

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