Woman, Life, Freedom: Revolting Space Invaders in Iran
 |
A group
of Iranian schoolgirls protest in the classroom while removing their compulsory
hijab. Covering her face, one holds a sign which reads: Zan, Zendegi, Azadi
[Woman, Life, Freedom]. Photograph: Morning
Star, 2023. |
Woman, Life, Freedom: Revolting Space Invaders in Iran
This article was penned in response to an invitation to write for a
Special Issue entitled 'Revisiting Space Invaders'. The article was first
published online in European Journal of Cultural Studies in August 2024.
Synopsis
In marking 20 years since the first publication of Nirmal Puwar's
seminal book 'Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place',
we've revisited the notions of invisibility, outsiderness, being ‘out of place’
and ‘space invaders’ within the political geographies of Iran. Furthering the
concept, we also tend to pair together ‘space invaders’ with the acts of
invading space as political acts of intervention. Shedding light on the bodies
‘out of place’ within the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran, we discuss how
this mobilisation created a new generation of ‘space invaders’ who no longer
negotiate with those in power, but exercise their right to choose what to wear
when occupying public spaces.
We argue that the state systematically and institutionally unmarks
the female body in public space in order to make it as invisible as possible.
Through protest, activism, performances and other mundane acts of everyday
resistance, we show how space invaders negate the authority of the state
apparatuses, defying conventions and boundaries, and create new codes for a
politically and culturally constructed version of ‘woman’ in Iran.