Being a Public Woman: Streets, Cars, Crimes, and the Shifting Calculus of Moral Accountability in Iran
Urbanisms of the Global South: Nuances, Particularities, and Implications AY 2025-2026
October 6, 2025
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Location
CUPPAH 110
Calendar
Download iCal FileJoin the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs in their Urbanisms of the Global South Series.
In postrevolutionary Iran, women’s presence in public space is contested not only by whether they appear but by how they appear. Gender identity is expressed through variations in hejab and bodily comportment, from women in chadors in bazaars to cosmopolitan women asserting transnational independence. Such claims to urban space face harassment, violence, and state programs of “social security” that both promise protection and criminalize deviations from official norms. Vigilantes and gangs justify attacks on women as a moral duty. Despite these threats, Iranian women persist negotiating daily mobility, confronting aggressors, and protesting for their right to public and political
freedoms.
Norma Claire Moruzzi, Professor of Women
and Gender Studies, UIC
-
Commentator: Brenda Parker, Associate
Professor of Urban Planning and Policy, UIC
Date posted
Sep 30, 2025
Date updated
Sep 30, 2025