On March 8, in at least a half dozen cities, Iranian women and men marked International Women’s Day with protests in defiance of the Islamic regime’s bloody crackdown. They called for freedom, women’s rights, and denounced the government’s response to the poisoning of thousands of schoolgirls.

In western Tehran, women and men called for an end to attacks on women and the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, chanting “Death to the dictator” (referring to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei) and "Woman, life, freedom." In eastern Tehran, security forces wielding tear gas and shotguns dispersed a group protesting discrimination against women.  

There were also protests in Ahvaz in southern Iran, Rasht and Karaj in the north, and the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj and Saqqez. In Rasht, women shouted out, "Whether with hijab or without hijab, we’re moving toward the revolution."¹

And on March 8, five girls in Tehran issued a 40-second video coinciding with IWD.  Dressed in loose fitting clothing and without headscarves, they danced in a public area (dancing in public is illegal in Iran) to the tune of "Calm Down" by Rema and Selena Gomez.  The video went viral and the authorities are reportedly trying to identify and perhaps arrest them.²

These actions demonstrate real defiance in the face of a regime willing to violently suppress protesters: Between September 2022 and March 2023, the regime arrested at least 3,953 women during protests and killed 66 women, according to human rights activists.³

Many different forces in Iran issued or signed statements in support of International Women’s Day. Internationally, there were moving examples of support for the struggle of Iranian women on March 8, IWD. For example, there was a silent "Handmaids" march down Piccadilly Street in London. In Germany, Mariam Claren, the daughter of Nahid Taghavi, a political prisoner in Iran, organized a powerful call for freedom for Iran’s political prisoners, with the stories of different prisoners read on Instagram by prominent German-Iranian activists.

At the IWD rally on March 11 in Los Angeles called by the revcoms, a statement from the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran's Political Prisoners Now highlighted the call from Colombia to stand with the uprising in Iran:

We call on you, the people of our planet, to support the uprising in Iran, to join your own longing for a radically new and better world with the hope that beats in the hearts of the heroic women and men of Iran. The women and the people of Iran have risen up. Their struggle is our struggle!”

Thousands of Women Continue to Defy Mandatory Hijab Rules

In a form of ongoing protest, thousands of women across Iran are openly defying the Islamic Republic’s dress code, publicly going without hijabs (head scarves). This is very significant: it was the September 16 murder of Mahsa Amini for not “properly” wearing her hijab, that triggered the uprising against the regime. The New York Times reports:

Women are suddenly flaunting their hair: left long and flowing in the malls; tied in a bun on the streets; styled into bobs on public transportation; and pulled into ponytails at schools and on university campuses, according to interviews with women in Iran as well as photographs and videos online. While these acts of defiance are rarer in more conservative areas, they are increasingly being seen in towns and cities…. [M]any acts of civil disobedience continue daily, including chanting "death to the dictator" from rooftops, writing graffiti on walls and tearing down and setting ablaze government banners. And women have been going out in public without their hijabs.

At the same time, some high-ranking clerics have warned that the hijab rules are still in effect and will be aggressively enforced. There are some reports that the regime may be debating exactly how to proceed on this front. This underscores the need for ongoing support for the Iranian people in the just struggle against this vicious, misogynist regime.⁴