Parvin Ardalan: The Pace of the Campaign’s Work and Movement Was Far Beyond What We Had Imagined/ Ali Kalaei

This September, twenty years have passed since the launch of the “One Million Signatures Campaign to Change Discriminatory Laws,” a rare experience in Iran’s women’s movement that took shape in 2006 (1385), following years of collective discussion and joint activity among various women’s groups. The campaign sought to take the demand for changing unequal laws […]...

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Nasrin Sotoudeh: If We Were to Launch the Campaign Again, I Would Put Optional Hijab at the Top of the Agenda/ Pedram Tahsini

The One Million Signatures Campaign can be regarded as one of the most important and influential experiences of women’s civil activism in contemporary Iran—an experience that emerged from legal demands, entered the public sphere, faced repression, and, despite the cessation of its activities, played a significant role in changing attitudes and expanding women’s demands. What […]...

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Mansoureh Shojaee: In the One Million Signatures Campaign, We Spoke with One Million People/ Morteza Hamounian

The One Million Signatures Campaign to Change Discriminatory Laws was one of the important and influential experiences of the Iranian women’s movement in the 2000s; a campaign launched in September 2006 (Shahrivar 1385) with the aim of changing unequal laws against women, whose activities were based on direct dialogue with people, legal education, and a […]...

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Sara Loghmani: Talking with People Was the One Million Signatures Campaign’s Most Unique Experience/ Mahtab Alinejad

On the twentieth anniversary of the formation of the “One Million Signatures Campaign to Change Discriminatory Laws,” revisiting this experience has once again taken on particular importance. Launched in September 2006 (Shahrivar 1385) with the aim of reforming laws that discriminated against women, the campaign did not limit its activities to collecting signatures. Through direct […]...

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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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