In 2014, a series of shocking and seemingly random acid attacks against women took place in the Iranian city of Esfahan. The attacks by unknown assailants sparked widespread reactions from the public, outside commentators, and especially social and political activists focused on women‘s issues. Subsequently, the tragic event also prompted thousands of people to take to the streets to protest the violence and demand the authorities to secure women‘s safety in the public spaces.
Drawing on historical and media research along with semi-structured in-depth interviews, this thesis investigates how the wave of acid attacks managed to inspire subsequent mass political mobilizations. Situating the Esfahan acid attacks within the historical and political history of Iran, this thesis suggests that heterogeneous forms of women‘s rights activism cannot be viewed as simply pro-Western or Islamic. Drawing on the detailed analysis of the post-revolutionary history, this thesis shows how women‘s rights and bodily presence in public space in Iran have often played a central role in contemporary political mobilizations. In that sense, protests generated by the Esfahan incident represent a continuation of the long history of politicization of women‘s bodies, which continues to take new forms to this day.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/38640 |
| Date | 04 January 2019 |
| Creators | Shojaei, Seyyedehsogand |
| Contributors | Kurtovic, Larisa |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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