- Title Information
- Title
- SACRED DISRUPTION: PROTEST MOVEMENTS AND SECULARISM UNDER THE IRANIAN THEOCRACY
- Abstract
- How do protest movements interact with secularism in theocratic countries? What role do they
play in the broader process of secularization? Through an in-depth analysis of the 2022 Women
Life Freedom protests in Iran, I find that protest movements engage with secularism by stressing
a choice between a religious or secular life. By creating a tangible manifestation of burgeoning
secular trends, highlighting religion as a potentially oppressive force, and emphasizing the social
tensions that subtly marginalize openly religious people regardless of their political beliefs,
protests embolden the already recognized social trend away from religion. I derive these findings
from archival research, newspaper analysis, and key informant interviews, which together pose a
holistic view of the Women Life Freedom movement. My findings contribute to theoretical
understandings of secularization processes by addressing gaps in secularization theory, the
religious markets model, and religious-politics theory, while also expanding identity theory in
social movements to include secularism as a potentially unifying or exclusionary ideology. My
research has practical implications for understanding the intricacies of theocratic governing
structures, highlighting the multifaceted nature of resistance, and demonstrating the value of
studying religion and secularism to understand internal political dynamics in both theocratic and
secular countries.
- Name:
Personal
- Name Part
- Michela Giovanna Alioto-Pier
- Role
- Role Term (marcrelator)
(authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/cre")
- creator
- Name:
Personal
- Name Part
- Polatty, David
- Role
- Role Term (marcrelator)
(authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ths")
- thesis advisor
- Name:
Personal
- Name Part
- Babadi, Mehrdad
- Role
- Role Term
- reader
- Name:
Corporate
- Name Part
- Brown University. International and Public Affairs
- Role
- Role Term:
Text
- sponsor
- Origin Information
- Copyright Date
- 2025
- Type of Resource (primo)
- text_resources
- Physical Description
- digitalOrigin
- born digital
- Language
- Language Term:
Text (ISO639-2B)
(authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2.html", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/eng")
- English
- Note:
thesis
- Senior thesis (AB)--Brown University, 2025
- Note
(displayLabel="Concentration")
- International and Public Affairs
- Genre (aat)
- theses
- Subject (fast)
(authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00979776")
- Topic
- Islam
- Subject (fast)
(authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/")
- Topic
- Resistance
- Subject (fast)
(authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01110732")
- Topic
- Secularism
- Subject (fast)
(authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/")
- Topic
- Protests
- Subject (fast)
(authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/")
- Topic
- Identity
- Subject (fast)
(authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01149503")
- Topic
- Theocracy
- Access Condition:
use and reproduction
- All rights reserved
- Access Condition:
rights statement
(href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
- In Copyright
- Access Condition:
restriction on access
- All Rights Reserved
- Identifier:
DOI
- 10.26300/rffp-0e86