Kelman Seminar – Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran’s Crisis as a Civilizational Reckoning

Recent events in Iran are often analyzed through geopolitical frameworks and short-term political or economic explanations. This talk offers a different perspective: a cultural and ethical interpretation rooted in Iran’s indigenous Zoroastrian heritage. Drawing on historical analysis, contemporary survey data on religious affiliation, and the Women, Life, Freedom (Zan, Zendegi, Azadi) movement, Dr. Sousan Abadian argues that Iran is undergoing not only political upheaval but a deeper civilizational reckoning. Through a Zoroastrian lens, Iran’s present moment appears not only as resistance to authoritarian rule, but as a long-delayed effort to reclaim moral agency, human dignity, and cultural wholeness after centuries of collective trauma and religious coercion. The talk explores how the movement’s language reflects long-suppressed indigenous Iranian ethical values—centered on dignity, life, freedom, and responsibility toward the Earth—and what this reawakening may signal about Iran’s possible futures.