On 20 May 2021, a video went viral: a woman dancing, hair partially unveiled, in a Tehran metro station. Her body moved in fluid, defiant rhythm as commuters watched, some clapping, some staring in disbelief, some averting their gaze. Dancing publicly without a hijab is strictly forbidden for women in Iran, and yet in that small, crowded metro station, the woman’s movement challenged centuries of control over women’s bodies in public space. That brief act was more than an individual display of courage; it was a microcosm of a persistent, long-standing form of resistance. It showed how women in Iran have historically used physical presence and bodily expression to contest laws and social norms, even in spaces heavily monitored by the state. The power of that moment lies not only in its defiance but in the silent acknowledgment that public space itself can be claimed, even temporarily, against the constraints imposed by patriarchal and state power.

From Dances to Uprisings

The metro dance foreshadowed the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement of 2022, which erupted after the tragic death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. Women across Iran removed their headscarves, cut their hair, and filled streets, squares, and university campuses with chants for freedom and justice. These acts were simultaneously personal and political: removing a headscarf was both a symbolic reclamation of bodily autonomy and a direct challenge to state-imposed moral codes. Women’s resistance transformed public spaces into stages of collective defiance, where the streets became sites of contestation over who could exist and act freely. The protests brought together women from diverse social classes, generations, and regions, demonstrating that resistance was not limited to urban elites but had deep resonance across Iranian society. In this way, the movement highlighted the enduring relationship between women’s physical presence in public space and their capacity to enact political change.

The uprising of late December 2025 further exemplifies this trajectory. Initially sparked by economic grievances such as rising prices and currency collapse, the protests quickly evolved into broader demands for political reform and social justice. Women were highly visible in every phase of the unrest, leading chants, coordinating marches, and strategically occupying streets and marketplaces. Their continued prominence in these protests demonstrates the persistence of women’s leadership and the centrality of gender in shaping the dynamics of Iranian resistance movements. Even in the face of internet shutdowns, violent crackdowns, and targeted arrests, women continued to assert visibility and agency, showing that control over public space remains a key front in the struggle against authoritarian rule.

Space as a Battleground

Across decades, Iranian women have used physical and symbolic space to challenge state authority. The state has long sought to regulate women’s movements, behaviours, and appearances, from mandatory veiling laws to strict gender segregation and prohibitions on dancing, singing, and certain public professions. Yet women have consistently resisted these constraints by transforming spaces meant to control them into arenas of contestation. Streets, parks, metro stations, and even domestic settings become sites of subtle or overt resistance. Mothers who lost children to state violence have turned cemeteries and local parks into spaces of protest, marching later to central squares and major thoroughfares. Their acts blur the line between private mourning and public activism, showing that political action is not confined to officially sanctioned arenas. These spatial practices reveal that resistance in Iran is as much about claiming and transforming space as it is about slogans, petitions, or demonstrations.

By repeatedly challenging restrictions on movement, dress, and presence, women create what can be termed “spaces of resistance.” These spaces are not just physical; they carry symbolic meaning, representing defiance, visibility, and autonomy. In doing so, women contest the patriarchal and state-imposed boundaries of what is considered acceptable behaviour, reshaping both social norms and urban landscapes. These acts underscore the inseparability of gender, politics, and space in Iran, demonstrating that the city itself is a living stage for resistance and transformation.

Recoding the City

In early 2026, women’s defiance intensified across Iran. Reports from Tehran, Shiraz, Mashhad, and other cities documented women leading marches, blocking streets, chanting slogans, and turning memorial services into acts of protest. Even under the threat of lethal repression, these women asserted their presence in public spaces, transforming ordinary urban locations into sites of political engagement. Their actions were both collective and individual: each person’s presence challenged the normative expectations of invisibility and compliance imposed on women.

The state has responded with targeted repression, including the arrest and sentencing of prominent women’s rights activists. Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi received an additional seven-year prison sentence in February 2026. Yet ordinary women continue to reclaim space through smaller acts of defiance: walking uncovered, singing in public, participating in marches, or simply appearing where they are forbidden. Such acts of presence and visibility have powerful symbolic and practical significance, demonstrating that resistance is embedded not only in formal political organization but also in everyday occupation of space.

Even beyond Iran, women’s struggle resonates transnationally. In February 2026, thousands of people marched in Berlin in solidarity with Iranian protesters. These transnational acts amplify the voices of women inside Iran and provide a global platform for solidarity, extending the spatial dimensions of resistance beyond national borders.

Why Space Matters

Examining Iranian women’s resistance through the lens of spatial dynamics reveals dimensions of struggle that would otherwise remain invisible. Streets, parks, universities, metro stations, and digital platforms are not neutral containers – they are sites where gendered power is both asserted and contested. Drawing on theories of deterritorialization (Deleuze & Guattari, 1988) and the right to the city (Lefebvre, 1996; Harvey, 2009), women’s everyday and collective acts transform space itself into a political instrument. The city becomes not only a site of struggle but also a canvas for imagining alternatives, for asserting agency, and for carving out visibility in contexts designed to enforce invisibility.

By centering spatial practices in the analysis of Iranian women’s resistance, we see the continuity of struggle across generations, from the Pahlavi era  (the ruling dynasty in Iran from 1925 to 1979, prior to the establishment of the Islamic Republic) to the present. While tactics evolve in response to shifting political conditions, the underlying principle remains the same: resistance is inseparable from space, visibility, and bodily presence.

A History That Continues

The 2026 protests highlight both the persistence of women’s courage and the brutality of state repression. Despite shutdowns, arrests, and violent crackdowns, women continue to claim streets, metros, parks, and homes as spaces of resistance. Resistance is not always loud or organized: sometimes it is a dance in a metro station; sometimes it is a mother holding a photograph of a child lost to violence; sometimes it is a woman walking unveiled, singing into the cold wind. These acts of courage remind us that the fight for gender justice in Iran is fought not only in institutions of power but in every space women occupy, transform, and defend. Their actions show that claiming space is itself a form of rebellion, a lived demonstration of autonomy, and a persistent challenge to entrenched systems of oppression.

 

References

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1988). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Harvey, D. (2009). The right to the city. In Social justice and the city (Rev. ed.). University of Georgia Press.

Lefebvre, H. (1996). The right to the city. In E. Kofman & E. Lebas (Eds.), Henri Lefebvre: Writings on cities (pp. 147–159). Basil Blackwell.

 

Raziye Mahmudi is a Postdoctoral Fellow at ZtG. She works at the intersection of gender studies, political sociology, and spatial theory. Her work engages questions of authoritarianism, everyday resistance, memory, and the politics of visibility in contemporary Iran. This essay is part of her ongoing research on women’s resistance and spatial politics in Iran, funded by the Greda Henkel Foundation.