Caught between state repression and Western co-optation, Iranian women’s struggle goes far beyond the hijab — and the world’s response reveals just how narrow our view of their freedom really is
Over two years after the custodial death of Mahsa Amini in Iran, the debate surrounding Iranian women’s rights has come to hog headlines once again, this time fuelled by a viral incident in which a young woman stripped to her underwears in protest of the state’s oppressive dress codes on Tehran’s Science and Research University campus. As a response to the young woman’s brave act, it’s enraging to see some reactions on social media, particularly on platforms like X where some Islamophobes have slammed the act as an affront to decency, branding it as ‘nudity’.
If the unidentified woman is being pilloried in India, mostly by the right-wing, in the West, contrastingly, she is being hailed as the new hero of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. Both could not be more wrong. For many Iranian women find themselves at odds with the narratives being built around them by Western liberals and countries, who co-opt their struggle to promote narrow ideals of feminism while turning a blind eye, for instance, to egregious violence against women in Gaza and Lebanon.
The concept of bodily autonomy has become central to feminist discourse in the West. The protest comes at a time when the women in the United States are fighting a fierce battle to protect reproductive rights. The result of the Presidential elections will be, in a way, a referendum on personal freedoms and the scope of women’s rights in America. Women across the US are facing an assault on their autonomy, contending with laws that challenge their right to agency. On the other hand, for many in the West, Iranian women removing their hijabs symbolises a universal struggle for freedom and self-expression. But for many Iranian women, bodily autonomy is just one aspect of a bigger fight for dignity, self-determination, and justice. In the context of Iran, where economic hardship and political repression intersect, focusing exclusively on hijab removal often obscures the wider reality.
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Economic inequality, political disenfranchisement, and social injustice are pervasive issues impacting the lives of Iranian women just as deeply as forced dress codes. Many Iranian women, while advocating for the right to choose whether or not to wear a hijab, are also grappling with job scarcity, inflation, and a lack of social services. But the Western focus often fixates solely on the hijab, erasing these other dimensions. This creates a disconnect between the struggles of Iranian women and the Western feminist ideals they’re often expected to conform to, making them feel alienated from a movement that claims to champion their cause.
Selective empathy from the West
The narrative surrounding Iranian women’s rights in the West has become a tool for virtue signalling, often exacerbated by selective outrage. Many Western feminists and political figures champion Iranian women’s rights by framing the removal of the hijab as the ultimate symbol of liberation, even as they ignore or justify violence and oppression faced by women in other parts of the Middle East, including Palestine and Lebanon. Iranian women are often painfully aware of this selective empathy, feeling co-opted by an agenda that doesn’t reflect their values or interests.
For Iranian women, this co-optation by Western countries and media feels hypocritical. As the Iranian woman’s protest footage circulates, the same Western governments praising her bravery continue to support policies and actions that undermine women’s rights elsewhere. The selective advocacy, in which Iranian women’s struggle for autonomy is spotlighted while the suffering of Palestinian women, for example, is disregarded, strikes many Iranian women as deeply cynical. It suggests that their fight is only valuable to the West when it fits a specific agenda — when it aligns with a convenient narrative of liberation against an Islamic regime.
Feminism beyond bodily autonomy
For many Iranian women, the Western focus on bodily autonomy feels reductive, if not outright dismissive. Women in Iran are pushing for a comprehensive approach to liberation that encompasses socio-economic rights, equal access to opportunities, and freedom from systemic oppression, not just from mandatory hijab laws. By limiting Iranian women’s struggles to the question of hijab, Western liberals risk ignoring the deeply interconnected nature of economic, political, and social justice.
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The truth is Iranian women stare at economic challenges, which are made worse by both internal policies and international sanctions. Unemployment, inflation, and limited opportunities restrict their choices and independence, often impacting their lives more immediately than dress codes. The economic sanctions imposed by Western governments are a prime example: while championing women’s rights, they also implement policies that limit Iran’s economic growth, worsening conditions for many women. The sanctions often hurt the most vulnerable in society, including women and children, by driving up costs and making essentials harder to afford.
This complex reality is often left out of Western feminist discourse, which tends to focus narrowly on bodily autonomy and expressions of freedom that conform to Western ideals of liberation. For many Iranian women, this feels like an erasure of the issues that shape their daily lives. They feel that true solidarity should include advocating for their economic and political rights, not just their sartorial choices.
The woman in the viral footage may have stripped down in protest, but her struggle is not just about clothing. It’s about the right to exist without being reduced to a symbol. And for her, as for many Iranian women, that means fighting not only for bodily autonomy but for a future defined by justice, equality, and true freedom.
While Western media eagerly seizes on images like this to underscore the state of women’s rights in Iran, it too often flattens the complex realities of their struggle. Western advocates may position this fight as one solely about clothing, implying that the hijab alone stands between Iranian women and their freedom. But for her — and for countless Iranian women — the question of freedom is far more complicated; it’s about rejecting a system that continues to reduce women to symbols. In the same way, her protest is not about nudity as the Indian right-wing makes it out to be; it’s about dignity.
