Iranian women's rights used to justify war again, widely mocked online

A renewed debate around the portrayal of Muslim women, particularly in Iran, has gained traction on social media in recent days, with users critiquing and ridiculing long-standing western narratives that frame women in the region as in need of liberation.

Many of the tweets raising the issue of women's rights in Iran build on the widespread protests that took place in Iran in 2022 after the killing of Mahsa Amini. Amini died after being taken into custody for wearing her hijab "inappropriately" in September 2022, sparking off widespread demonstrations across Iran against the country's treatment of women and minorities, as well as against the Islamic Republic as a whole.

But the latest debate was ignited after the Israeli military launched an offensive against the Islamic Republic more than a week ago, which initially targeted Iran's nuclear infrastructure and air defence systems, as well as several other targets across the country including housing complexes.

The Israeli military said it carried out wide-ranging attacks on "regime targets" in Tehran, including sites tied to Iran's internal security apparatus, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Evin Prison, which holds prominent political dissidents. 

The conversation about the rights and freedoms of women in Iran follows a series of online posts about women's education, including their level of literacy and legal rights in Iran, which portray Iran's treatment of women as unfair.

Many of these posts draw comparisons between Iran, western countries and Israel, suggesting that women are exceptionally discriminated against in the country.

Idiot. One third of the 500+ Iranian civilians murdered by Israel are women pic.twitter.com/bSugkghFNB

— Tameem | تميم (@TameeOliveFern) June 21, 2025

However, many on social media were shocked and outraged by this conversation because the level of female literacy in Iran is extremely high, according to Statista, which suggest that by 2020, the level of literacy among Iranian women was 85.5 percent, higher than that of men, which stood at 80 percent.

Many on social media said that the discourse around Iranian women's illiteracy was served to the public over and over again as a way of "weaponising feminism" to justify Israeli and US attacks on Iran.

very strange reading americans tweet how iranian women can’t go to school and need to be liberated. iran has 98.9% female literacy. 70% of STEM grads are women, highest in the world. oh, and without student debt. classic weaponizing feminism to justify bombs.

— maryam (@maryamful) June 22, 2025

Writer and activist Susan Abulhawa made a compilation of these statistics on the social media platform X, where she also shared that Iranian women enjoy free maternity care and subsidised infertility treatments.

She also said that many of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) graduates in the country are women, and the level of female homicide is much lower compared to western countries, specifically the United States.

This post is for everyone trying to use the mantra of saving Muslim women, the tired bullshit the west has used to actually destroy the lives of Muslim women for decades. Here are some statistics specific to Iran.

LITERACY AMONG WOMEN.
Prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979,…

— susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى (@susanabulhawa) June 22, 2025

According to a report by Quartz, 70 percent of STEM graduates in Iran are women, a higher percentage than in many other countries, including the US.

Human rights groups have in the past substantively critiqued the state of women's rights in Iran, but people on social media have been mocked for using women's rights in Iran as a pretext for justifying Israeli and US attacks on the country.

Saying “Iran murders women” to justify bombing Iranian women — all while supporting Israel as it murdered over 100k women and girls in Gaza in less than two years — is one of the most disgusting stances I’ve seen, and that takes a lot

— Tiberius (@ecomarxi) June 19, 2025

Specifically in response to the questions on social media relating to the treatment of women in the US and Iran, social media was rife with videos from the US, showing police violence against women in the country.

Commentators online and on various TV programmes recently claimed that Iranian women are "not allowed to get an education", "can't own property", and even "can't leave their homes", which many social media users found to be a ludicrous assertion.

Who is that blonde saying the most stupid shit about how Iranian women aren’t allowed to get an education, can’t own property, can’t leave their homes? Over 60% of college grads in Iran are women.

The View’s refusal to know *anything* about anything they discuss with such… https://t.co/BcojUK5PCf

— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) June 19, 2025

As of 2020, women made up over 55 percent of university students in Iran, according to research by Brandeis University. In postgraduate and doctoral programmes, female enrollment is consistently between 50-58 percent.

Many on social media criticised the discourse of "freeing Iranian women" and compared it to how the west "liberated" Afghan, Iraqi, Libyan and Syrian women which led to innumerable deaths and humanitarian crises in those countries.

Since 13 June, Israeli strikes in Iran have killed at least 430 people and wounded 3,500, according to health officials. Independent sources suggest the death toll could be much higher.