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Involvement in the ‘Green Movement'

Rahnavard was the most important female figurehead of the ‘Green Movement’. Rahnavard, an activist and reformist, described by Foreign Policy as the "brains behind Iran's Green Revolution and the campaign of her husband, opposition leader Mir Hosssein Mousavi", challenged the Islamic Republic public/private divide by holding hands with her husband, Mousavi. Rahnavard also challenged the aftermath of the revolution that women were to devote themselves to domestic tasks, while men took care of the sociopolitical and economic affairs. In post-revolutionary Iran, the ‘Green Movement’ played a key role in representing those people who challenged this stereotype set out by the Islamic Republic. The couple’s slogan was “Mousavi, Rahnavard, Equality Between Men and Women”.

Rahnvard’s involvement in politics is rare for an Iranian woman but she took a very much active and important role during campaign rallies prior to the 2009 Presidential election, giving speeches, interviews, attending press conferences and afterwards partaking in rallies, one of which she was pepper sprayed.

After the so-called fraudulent Presidential election in 2009, women’s participation in the protests against official claims that Ahmadinejad had a landslide victory, mirrored the aftermath of the 1979 revolution, women were, and still are, fighting for equal rights after decades of women’s struggle, and are calling for their participation in politics. Women came out in extraordinary numbers on the streets of Tehran in 2009, dominating Iran’s nonviolent 'Green Movement’, led by both Rahnavard and Mousavi. Women were defying the police and military during these protests, yet remained peaceful in nature. Though despite this, many women were still beaten up and killed for protesting against Ahmadinejad’s election victory.

Rahnavard, along with Mousavi, despite being under house arrest since 2011 due their involvement in mass protests after the 2009 Presidential election, still remain central leaders of the now banned Green Path of Hope party.