In August 2018, Iranian women were at the forefront of a new wave of 2018 Protests in Iran that, according to the regime’s Interior Minister, spread to 27 cities across 13 provinces (IRNA, August 21, 2018).
The Fars News Agency reported on August 5, 2018: “At Valiasr Square in Tehran, two women were leading the demonstrations. Standing together on the sidewalk of Valiasr Street, they began shouting: ‘Why are you silent, people? Where is your bravery?’ Gradually, 10 to 15 people gathered around them, and the slogans began: ‘Death to the Dictator,’ and so on.”
A video clip from protests in Karaj, near Tehran, showed a crowd of women and young people marching down a street. The clip started with chants of “Political prisoners must be freed.” Different slogans overlapped, making it difficult to discern individual chants. The women, positioned in the middle of the crowd, started chanting: “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid, we are all together.” Their voices soon dominated, and the entire crowd powerfully echoed the chant, encouraging others to join the protests.
The Fars News Agency described the brave Iranian women as the driving force behind the 2018 Protests in Iran, stating, “During the Karaj unrest, 20 leaders were identified and arrested, most of whom were women” (Fars News Agency, August 5, 2018).
In another part of their report, Fars mentioned, “Notably, today’s leader, as in previous days, was a woman.”
In the same report, under the subheading “But the start of the story…,” the agency acknowledged that the brave Iranian women were inspired by and took cues from the leading women in the resistance movement. They wrote, “The hashtag #Women_Revolutionaries is still trending, coinciding with the MEK’s Paris conference attended by Maryam Rajavi titled ‘Women, the Force for Change.'”
Rasoul Sanai Rad, the political head of the office for the Supreme Leader’s political and ideological office, commented on the role of women in the 2018 Protests in Iran, stating, “For the first time, 28% of those arrested in the unrest were women.” He compared this to the December 2017 protests, where “Previously, the percentage of women arrested was between 5 to 7%” (Mehr News Agency, August 15, 2018).
Many courageous Iranian women and female students played pivotal roles in the 2018 Protests in Iran. During the August uprising, at least 1,000 people were arrested by security forces, with a significant number being brave women and girls.
