The #MeToo Movement in Iran

At a time when Iranian women have galvanized the world with their audacious protests against the compulsory Islamic dress code, The #MeToo Movement in Iran aptly reminds us of a prior moment when women dared to speak of the many forms of sexual abuse and harassment they have long endured in silence. The contributors offer trenchant analyses that lay bare the Iranian state’s hypocritical claim of protecting women through the dress code only to punish them for the acts of violence against them. Inspired by the global #MeToo Movement, the Iranian movement is shaped by local differences, stemming from the theocratic regime’s hostility to women’s rights as well as the rights of minoritized bodies and longstanding cultural taboos. This book provides invaluable insights into how the digital media amplified the reverberations of the movement across Iranian social and cultural arenas. * Nasrin Rahimieh, University of California, Irvine, USA * Inspired by the global #MeToo Movement which has uncovered dark stories of sexual harassment experienced by women and girls across the world, this timely and much anticipated edited volume offers, for the first time, a comprehensive and accessible analysis of sexual assault against women and girls in Iran and its diaspora. Sensitive and nuanced, this book will stand as an essential read for scholars of all disciplines who work on the complex socio-cultural and political mechanisms of gender oppression and sexual harassment as a persistent universal problem and its impact on the private and public lives of women. * Fatemeh Shams, University of Pennsylvania, USA *