Claudia Yaghoobi

The University of North Carolina, USA

Title: Woman Life Freedom and The Collapse of Iran’s Hypermasculine Governmentality

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Biography

Claudia Yaghoobi is a Roshan Distinguished Professor of Persian Studies and serves as the director of the Center for the Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Yaghoobi is a scholar of Iranian cultural studies, and gender and sexuality studies with a focus on the members of sexual, ethnic, and religious minoritized populations. Yaghoobi earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Feminist Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2013. Leveraging her extensive knowledge and expertise, she teaches diverse courses encompassing Iranian literature and culture, Middle Eastern literature, gender and sexuality, diaspora studies, and human rights. A true embodiment of her multifaced identity, Yaghoobi identifies as an Iranian Armenian American. Her research encapsulates the literary landscape of the Middle East, with an acute emphasis on Persian and Armenian literature. Particularly, she hones on the experiences of those who belong to sexual, ethnic, and religious minority groups, often positioned at the periphery of normative society. Through her academic inquiry, she delves into the nuanced intersections of liminality as they are expressed by authors, artists, and directors, who valiantly challenge and deconstruct prevailing social hegemonies.

Abstract

This article examines the enduring struggle of Iranian women for their rights, with a focus on their assertion of presence in public spaces historically designed to exclude them. Over the past decade, the Internet and digital media have become pivotal tools for these movements, enabling campaigns such as #GirlsOfRevolutionStreet, #MeToo, #MahsaAmini, and #WomanLifeFreedom to combat targeted violence and amplify voices of survivors. Tracing over four decades of feminist resistance, this article highlights how targeted violence has reinforced male privilege and patriarchal power while women’s movements have worked to dismantle these structures through public discourse and awareness. This analysis is further enriched by an exploration of Mohammad Rasoulof’s. The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a filmset against the backdrop of the Woman, Life, Freedom (WLF) movement. The film portrays the unraveling of patriarchal dominance in both public and private spheres and juxtaposes intergenerational tensions, feminist awakenings, and societal collapse, symbolizing the broader dynamics of Iranian gender politics and the disintegration of hyper masculine authority. The Seed of the Sacred Fig serves as a microcosm of Iranian gender culture, reflecting the interplay of tradition, resistance, and change.