Iranian people have kept the Woman, Life, Freedom movement alive through creative acts three years after its eruption, shaping society in ways that continue to unfold, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi told Iran International on Saturday.
“The movement is alive and ongoing, and its vitality is visible in society’s very fabric,” Mohammadi said in an interview marking the third anniversary of Iran’s 2022 protests that started with the death in morality police custody of Mahsa “Jina” Amini.
“When I walk in the streets, the presence of women with voluntary dress (hijab) reflects part of the transformation.”
The change has come from “the power and resistance of the people,” not from decisions of the Islamic Republic, she added.
Mohammadi said Iranian women have gained new power to shape their own lives, driving deep changes in society—some visible in daily life, others yet to be recognized or fully understood.
Grassroots change, diminished state control
The prominent activist said the movement has persisted through creative tactics and subtle acts of defiance.
“People do not need to constantly be in the streets and protests,” she said. “Society uses creative and very effective actions and reactions that demonstrate the movement’s vitality.”
“The Islamic Republic no longer has the same power even to hold official events,” she said. “The visible presence of women without hijab has often wrested the scene away from the organizers.”
Mahsa Amini’s death on 16 September 2022 sparked the protests that grew into a nationwide call for rights under the slogan Woman, Life, Freedom.
Mohammadi, repeatedly jailed for her activism, has spent more than a decade behind bars and faced sentences totaling over 36 years and 154 lashes.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, she remains under medical leave from prison and continues to advocate for women’s rights and democracy.
