Ambiguity in Revolutionary Praxis: Simone de Beauvoir’s Ethics and the "Woman, Life, Freedom" Movement of Iran

Abstract

This paper examines the Iranian women’s revolutionary revolt of 2022-2026, which is popularly known as the “Woman, Life, Freedom” (Zan, Zendegi, Azadî) movement, through Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialist ethics, primarily following her works Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) and The Second Sex (1949). I argue that Iranian women’s uprising takes up and actualizes Beauvoir’s central ethical claims regarding ambiguity being the fundamental human condition, intersubjective dimension of freedom, and the moral imperative of collective liberation. By investigating how Iranian women’s resistance demonstrates the crucial distinction between ontological freedom and practical freedom, I present that Beauvoir’s phenomenological insight on the situatedness and its intimate relation to freedom provides an essential framework for understanding the philosophical significance of this revolutionary feminist movement. The paper exposes how the Islamic Republic of Iran exemplifies what Beauvoir terms as “mystified” oppression and analyzes the philosophical dimensions of Iranian women and men’s collective uprising as a concrete enactment of Beauvoirian ethics. Through this analysis I demonstrate that the movement vindicates Beauvoir’s foundational thesis: to will oneself free is to will everyone else free.

Keywords

• Simone de Beauvoir
• Iranian women’s movement
• “Woman Life Freedom”
• existentialist ethics
• feminist phenomenology

Devrimsel Praksiste Belirsizlik: Simone de Beauvoir’ın Etiği ve İran’daki “Kadın, Yaşam, Özgürlük” Hareketi

Abstract

Bu makale, yaygın olarak “Kadın, Yaşam, Özgürlük” (Zan, Zendegi, Azadî) hareketi olarak bilinen 2022-2026 İranlı kadınların devrimci isyanını, başta Belirsizlik Etiği (1947) ve İkinci Cinsiyet (1949) olmak üzere Simone de Beauvoir’ın varoluşçu etiği üzerinden incelemektedir. İranlı kadınların ayaklanması, belirsizliğin temel insani koşul olduğunu, özgürlüğün özneler-arası boyutunu ve kolektif kurtuluşun ahlaki zorunluluğu yönündeki Beauvoircı temel etik iddiaları yalnız üstlenmekle kalmayıp somutlaştırıyor. İranlı kadınların direnişinin ontolojik özgürlük ile pratik özgürlük arasındaki hayati ayrımı nasıl ortaya koyduğunu araştırarak, Beauvoir’ın durumsallığa ilişkin fenomenolojik kavrayışının ve bunun özgürlükle olan yakın ilişkisinin, bu devrimci feminist hareketin felsefi önemini anlamak için temel bir çerçeve sunduğunu ileri sürüyor. Makale, İran İslam Cumhuriyeti’nin Beauvoir’ın “mistifiye edilmiş” baskı olarak adlandırdığı durumu nasıl örneklediğini açığa çıkararak, İranlı kadınlar ile erkeklerin kolektif ayaklanmasının felsefi boyutlarını, Beauvoircı etiğin somut bir icrası olarak analiz ediyor. Bu analiz aracılığıyla, hareketin Beauvoir’ın kurucu tezini doğruladığını gösteriyor: kendini özgür kılmayı istemek, herkesin özgür olmasını istemektir.

Keywords

• Simone de Beauvoir
• İran kadın hareketi
• “Kadın Yaşam Özgürlük”
• varoluşçu etik
• feminist fenomenoloji

References

1. Afary, J. ve Anderson, K. (2005). Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2. Afary, J. (2009). Sexual Politics in Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. Alcoff, L. M. (2000). Phenomenology, Post-structuralism, and Feminist Theory on the Concept of Experience. In L. Fisher ve L. Embree (Eds.), Feminist Phenomenology (ss. 39-56). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
4. Amnesty International. (2024). Iran: Women and Girls Facing Violent Crackdown [Acil Eylem UA 39/24]. Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde13/8029/2024/en/
5. Arp, K. (1999). Conceptions of Freedom in Beauvoir’s The Ethics of Ambiguity. International Studies in Philosophy, 31(2): 25-34. https://doi.org/10.5840/intstudphil199931213
6. Arp, K. (2001). The Bonds of Freedom: Simone de Beauvoir’s Existentialist Ethics. Chicago: Open Court.
7. Arp, K. (2012). Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialism: Freedom and ambiguity in the human world. In S. Crowell (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Existentialism (1. bs.: 252-273). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521513340.013
8. Beauvoir, S. de. (1945). La phénoménologie de la perception de Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Les Temps Modernes, 1(2): 363-367.

9. Beauvoir, S. de. (2010). The Second Sex (C. Borde ve S. Malovany-Chevallier, Çev.). New York: Knopf.
10. Beauvoir, S. de. (2011). The Ethics of Ambiguity. New York: Philosophical Library/Open Road.
11. Berger, J. (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: BBC and Penguin Books.
12. Bergoffen, D. (1997). The Philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir: Gendered Phenomenologies, Erotic Generosities. Albany: State University of New York Press.
13. Dezfuli, S. M. K. P. (2024). The Biopolitics of Hijab in Iran. Open Journal of Political Science, 14(3): 512-530. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojps.2024.143029
14. Direk, Z. (2009). Simone de Beauvoir: Abjeksiyon ve eros etiği. Cogito, 58: 11-38. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
15. Fisher, L. (2000). Phenomenology and Feminism: Perspectives on their Relation. In L. Fisher ve L. Embree (Eds.), Feminist Phenomenology (ss. 17-38). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
16. Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (A. Sheridan, Çev.). New York: Random House Vintage Books.
17. Hafezi, P. ve Abdallah, N. (2026, 17 January). Death toll in Iran protests over 3,000, rights group says. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/death-toll-iran-protests-over-3000-rights-group-says-2026-01-17/
18. Heinämaa, S. (1997). What is a Woman? Butler and Beauvoir on the Foundations of the Sexual Difference. Hypatia, 12(1): 20-39.
19. Heinämaa, S. (1999). Simone de Beauvoir’s Phenomenology of Sexual Difference. Hypatia, 14(4): 114-132.
20. Heinämaa, S. (2003). Toward a Phenomenology of Sexual Difference: Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Beauvoir. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
21. Human Rights Watch. (2024). Iran: New President Should Confront Rights Abuses. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/12/iran-new-president-should-confront-rights-abuses
22. Iran Human Rights. (2025). Annual Report on the Death Penalty in Iran 2024. Iran Human Rights Organization. https://iranhr.net/en/reports/42/
23. Izadi, D. ve Dryden, S. (2024). Woman/life/freedom: The social semiotics behind the 2022 Iranian protest movement. Discourse, Context & Media, 60, 100803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2024.100803
24. Javaid, M. ve Verde, A. (2026, 15 January). Iran’s protests come after waves of unrest, spanning years. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/01/15/iran-protests-history-death-toll/
25. Kandiyoti, D. (1991). Identity and its Discontents: Women and the Nation. Millennium, 20(3): 429-443. https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298910200031501
26. Keddie, N. R. (2006). Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press.
27. Kirkpatrick, K. (2023). Beauvoir and Sartre’s “Disagreement” about Freedom. Philosophy Compass, 18(11): e12942.
28. Kruks, S. (1990). Situation and Human Existence: Freedom, Subjectivity and Society. London: Unwin Hyman.
29. Kruks, S. (2012). Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
30. Linsenbard, G. E. (1999). Beauvoir, Ontology, and Women’s Human Rights. Hypatia, 14(4): 145-162.
31. McLaren, M. A. (2019). Women’s Rights as Human Rights: Feminism and Universal Human Rights. In Women’s Activism, Feminism, and Social Justice (ss. 35-58). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
32. McWeeny, J. (2017). Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty. In L. Hengehold ve N. Bauer (Eds.), A Companion to Simone de Beauvoir (ss. 211-223). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
33. Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). Phenomenology of Perception (D. Landes, Çev.). London: Routledge.
34. Mernissi, F. (2003). Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society (Yeni bs.). London: Saqi Books.
35. Mhajne, A., Tabor, L. ve Traves, B. (2025). Online Responses and Backlash to ’Women, Life, Freedom’ Hashtag Activism. Global Studies Quarterly, 5(3): ksaf063. https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksaf063
36. Najmabadi, A. (1991). Hazards of Modernity and Morality: Women, State and Ideology in Contemporary Iran. In D. Kandiyoti (Ed.), Women, Islam and the State. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
37. Nazem, Y. (2025). Iran’s 2024 Hijab and Chastity Law Criminalizes Freedom Through Surveillance and Disciplinary Power. International Journal of Systems Engineering, 9(1): 9-18. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijse.20250901.12
38. Oksala, J. (2016). Feminist Experiences: Foucauldian and Phenomenological Investigations. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
39. Paidar, P. (1995). Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
40. Sartre, J.-P. (1956). Being and Nothingness (H. Barnes, Çev.). New York: Philosophical Library.
41. Schott, R. M. (2003). Beauvoir on the ambiguity of evil. In C. Card (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Simone de Beauvoir (ss. 228-247). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
42. Sharim, S. D. (2022). Veiled (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. 4249282). Social Science Research Network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4249282
43. Şimga, H. (2017). Beauvoir’s Ethics of Ambiguity and Human Rights. Philosophia: International Journal of Philosophy, 18(1): 1-17.
44. Simons, M. A. (Ed.). (1999). Beauvoir and The Second Sex: Feminism, Race, and the Origins of Existentialism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
45. Simons, M. A. (2000). Beauvoir’s Philosophical Independence in a Dialogue with Sartre. The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 14(2): 87-103.
46. Tétrault-Farber, G. (2024, 18 March). Mahsa Amini’s death in Iran custody was “unlawful,” says UN mission. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/mahsa-aminis-death-iran-custody-was-unlawful-says-un-mission-2024-03-18/
47. United Nations. (1993). Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g93/142/34/pdf/g9314234.pdf
48. United Nations Human Rights Council. (2024). Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (A/HRC/55/67). https://undocs.org/A/HRC/55/67
49. Vintges, K. (1996). Philosophy as Passion: The Thinking of Simone de Beauvoir. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
50. Wilkerson, W. (2010). Time and Ambiguity: Reassessing Merleau-Ponty on Sartrean Freedom. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 48(2): 207-234.
51. Wilkerson, W. (2017). Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty on Freedom and Authenticity. In L. Hengehold ve N. Bauer (Eds.), A Companion to Simone de Beauvoir (ss. 224-235). Oxford: Wiley.