The first time I was beaten up by police I was sixteen years old. It was March 8, 2004, and more than four thousand feminists had gathered in Tehran’s Laleh Park to commemorate International Women’s Day. Hundreds of security forces were dispatched to the park to prevent our rally from going ahead. They were especially focused on driving men out of the rally. If women were celebrating “their day,” this could be cast as an ordinary community fair, just like other groups mark “their days,” but if men joined them, this would look like subversive politics. A police officer articulated precisely this “argument” after hitting me with a baton. “If it’s women’s day, what are you doing here?” he said.
Taking Liberties in Tehran
