Twenty Years Later: What Did the One Million Signatures Campaign Change?/ Afrouz Maghzi

Question 1: Looking back from a distance of twenty years at August 27, 2006 (5 Shahrivar 1385), and the launch of the “One Million Signatures Campaign,” what is the greatest misconception in evaluating this movement, and where should its real achievement be sought? The greatest mistake is to measure the campaign’s success or failure solely […]...

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Compulsory Hijab and the Boundaries of the One Million Signatures Campaign’s Demands/ Aliyeh Motalebzadeh

I belong to a generation of women who have spent a large part of their lives in conflict with the Islamic Republic; not only in the streets, in prison, and in civil activism, but also in the media, in photographs and images, in those very places that the government, whenever it has deemed necessary, has […]...

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The One Million Signatures Campaign: Strategies, Achievements, and an Enduring Legacy in Iran’s Women’s Civil Movement/ Azadeh Davachi

The “One Million Signatures Campaign to Change Discriminatory Laws” (Change for Equality), launched in August 2006 (Mordad 1385) through the efforts of a group of women’s rights activists, is regarded as one of the most prominent, cohesive, and influential collective actions in Iran’s contemporary history. By adopting an issue-oriented approach and making use of social […]...

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The One Million Signatures Campaign and the Women Left Out of Its Narrative/ Samireh Hanaei

When does a movement that claims to represent “all women” turn the experience of one particular group of women into the general experience of women as a whole? When we speak of the “Iranian women’s movement,” exactly which women are we talking about? Who defines these women? Who decides what constitutes a women’s issue? Is […]...

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The One Million Signatures Campaign and the Tradition of Petitioning/ Majid Shia’Ali

Twenty years have passed since an experience that was never repeated either before or after it. It was a campaign made unique by the convergence of several characteristics: the formation of a formal feminist movement, political and religious moderation with an emphasis on legality and non-conflict with religious foundations, an emphasis on collective action and […]...

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The Twentieth Anniversary of the One Million Signatures Campaign: Achievements, Challenges, and Moving Beyond the Reformist Discourse/ Elahe Amani

The One Million Signatures Campaign in Iran cannot be understood without considering the experience of the women’s movement in Morocco in the early 1990s. Iranian women activists drew inspiration from the Moroccan experience, particularly its use of large-scale signature collection as a tool for social mobilization, raising public awareness, and creating pressure to reform discriminatory […]...

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Men in the One Million Signatures Campaign and the Test of Commitment to Equality/ Kaveh Kermanshahi

Twenty years have passed since the launch of the “One Million Signatures Campaign to Change Discriminatory Laws.” The movement was initiated by activists in the women’s movement and, for many young people, became their first experience of social activism and their first close encounter with the struggle for gender equality. Among these young people were […]...

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Let’s embrace the small steps/ Raha Azadi

Those who are around my age remember the One Million Signatures Campaign. Just when civil society felt that it had been pushed several steps backward by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, efforts—perhaps struggles—were underway to take steps forward, however small. This was one of them. Its memories now go back twenty years; its website is no longer […]...

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A Public Circle Around a Private Suffering/ Nasim Khosravi

It is a hot afternoon in June 2008 (Khordad 1387), at the entrance of a hospital in central Tehran. A distressed woman asks passersby for help contacting her child’s paternal uncle. The child must undergo surgery as soon as possible, and her signature on the consent form is not acceptable. The father, who separated from […]...

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From One Million Signatures to Woman, Life, Freedom: Continuity or Rupture?/ Hermineh Hourdad

When we speak today of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, there is a strong temptation to begin everything in September 2022 (Shahrivar 1401), as though the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini suddenly gave birth to the questions of women, freedom, and the body in Iranian society. But the memory of the women’s movement tells a […]...

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