Did the Woman, Life, Freedom Protests Change Iran? Interview with Shadi Mokhtari – 1 March 2024

In this episode, School of International Service professor Shadi Mokhtari joins Big World to discuss the history of protests in Iran, the unprecedented international reaction to Mahsa Amini’s death, and the greater impact of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.

Over a year has passed since Mahsa Amini was detained and died in Iran after being detained by Iran’s morality police for improperly wearing a hijab in September 2022. Her death sparked massive protests around the world and was the catalyst for the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran.

Mokhtari begins our conversation by providing a brief background on Iran’s long history of protests (1:51). Mokhtari also describes the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests (8:59) and discusses the key grievances raised by the protesters (16:33).

How did the Iranian diaspora respond to these protests (18:04)? Did the protests help to unite Iranians or did it cause further divides (30:22)? Mokhtari answers these questions and more. Mokhtari ends our conversation by discussing how the Woman, Life, Freedom protests will be viewed in Iran in the future (33:38).

In the “Take 5” segment (28:14), Mokhtari answers the question: What things would need to change before we see meaningful political change in Iran?

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