Series 2 Episode 2 – Why Iranian women are rising up against repression
St Andrews experts talk about the current protests in Iran and what’s driving women across the country to say enough is enough.
In this Scotland’s Future Series discussion host Professor Stephen Gethins talks to Professor Ali Ansari from the University’s School of History and former refugee and author Dina Nayeri, from the School of English.
In the last few months, protests have escalated across Iran as people, especially women, stand up to four decades of this repressive regime, its enforcement of Sharia law and the impact of strict rules including the re-veiling of women and girls in public.
Dina Nayeri talks about her childhood in Iran which coincided with the early days of the Islamic Republic, her experience as a refugee after her family fled Iran, and the perspective of the current generation of Iranians living in “confusion” between the strict rules imposed on their own lives and the “maleocracy” of their government, juxtaposed with the free world they can see beyond its borders.
Ali Ansari, who is the Founding Director of St Andrews’ Institute for Iranian Studies, talks about the process of change in Iran and how the end of the Islamic Republic and a return to a more liberal society, may take time.