The historical narrative of the “woman question” in Iran is an intricate labyrinth, not a story that can be accurately recounted by portraying women as either “oppressed” or “liberated” during a particular historical period. In fact, that audacious history winds through unexpected twists and turns, gains and losses, triumphs and defeats. Yet the complexity of this story is often lost amid misperceptions. The popular version of events goes something like this:

During the Pahlavi Monarchy, women were on an upward trajectory. In a nation on the cusp of modernity, women actively participated. They were given the right to vote and freed to appear in public without veils; they wore miniskirts on university campuses. Then came the Islamic Revolution in 1979. With Ayatollah Khomeini at the helm, the burgeoning freedoms for women were extinguished. The veil was required and institutions were segregated by gender. The Islamic Republic had thus achieved its goal of resurrecting the image of the quintessential Muslim woman.

The problem with popular narratives of historical events is that despite their superficial half-truths, the real story is usually much more nuanced, and less tidy. The dramatic and surprising story of the women’s movement in Iran certainly is.