Iran

European policymakers need to rethink their approach to Iran and formulate a new policy that puts people and human security at its core. Such an approach would center on a consistent human rights perspective and the sustained support for civil society.

Despite enormous challenges, the LGBTQ+ movement in Iran has come a long way in the last years. Queer individuals actively participated in the Women, Life, Freedom protests. However, the isolation and solitary existence of the movement remains a challenge.

In Iran, feminist foreign policy demands both short-term interventions to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population and a long-term approach to deal with the state’s structural violence against its own citizens.

“Once I started to write myself, I began to realize how this powerful act of self-expression was the counter opposite of the seclusion, alienation, and repression that mandatory veiling had imposed on me” says Iranian author Ava Homa. In her article, she points out various forms of protest with which women in Iran fight for freedoms and participation – one of them is writing.