Rhiannon Day – Editor in Chief

A seminar on Iran, titled Women at the Vanguard: The Roots of Iran’s Popular Uprising, was held on Monday, Oct. 24 at 4:30 p.m. in Cleghorn by PISA, the Politics and International Studies Association, in order to give students an understanding of the political and social context of the current events evolving in Iran. Speakers included Dr. Thomas Juneau, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and Dr. Daniel Miller, associate professor at Bishop’s University’s department of religion, society and culture. This event was moderated by Dr. Sarah-Myriam Martin-Brûlé, a full professor at BU in the department of politics and international studies.

This event began with an introduction, land acknowledgement, and plan for the evening by Meaghan Connelly, the Director of Events for PISA. She explained that the purpose of the events was to give students background information into the protests occurring in Iran, and introduced the next speakers, Dr. Sarah-Myriam Martin-Brûlé and Dr. Thomas Juneau, who joined the seminar on Teams.

Dr. Juneau presented a 20-minute explanation focusing on four aspects of Iranian foreign policy: geography and its implications, Iran-US relations, defence doctrine, and a case study of Yemen. His presentation was followed by questions from the audience. While answering a question from the audience, Dr. Juneau said, “The protests in Iran are genuine… The tens of thousands of people we see in the streets of Iran are not supported, motivated or encouraged by the US or Israel or Saudi Arabia. These are Iranians who are fed up, rightly so, by what is an extremely brutal, theocratic, dictatorial, oppressive, violent regime government in Iran.”

Dr. Miller followed Dr. Juneau’s presentation with his own on the history, politics, and religion of the region, as well as an explanation into the death of Mahsa Amini. His presentation was supported by videos throughout the decades and reports by news outlets around the world, as well as explanations of vocabulary, important names, and relevant moments in history. “It may be said that the women’s rights movement in Iran has been going on for almost a century,” said Dr. Miller, “but this is the first time that women in particular have sparked widespread protests and have led them.” At the end of his presentation, Dr. Miller chose to play “Baraye,” a song that has become an unofficial anthem for the protests. In a powerful show of solidarity, many members in the audience sang along. Following his presentation, two Iranian students from the Université de Sherbrooke in the audience introduced themselves and asked for the support of the people there, asking for voices and concrete actions.

“How it went was so much better than I could have imagined,” said Connelly after the event. “I think the ending with the song was just so important to have, it was so touching to the Iranian students present.”

When asked about what PISA would do after the event, Connelly replied “What we want to do is keep the conversation happening.”