Dying after setting herself on fire, “Blue Girl” spotlights Iran’s women’s rights movement

Iranian women cheer in October 2018 as they wave their country’s flag after authorities, in a rare move, allowed a select group of women into Tehran’s Azadi Stadium to watch a friendly soccer match between Iran and Bolivia. Women’s rights activists in Iran said international condemnation after Khodayari’s death casts a spotlight on the country’s burgeoning women’s rights movement spearheaded by young Iranians who are leveraging the power of social media to advance their cause. Iranian women behind the Open Stadiums movement — an online campaign that has advocated for the lifting of the ban on women entering stadiums since 2005 — were quick to respond, using their Twitter account, with its more than 3,000 followers, as a platform to spread information and engage in discussions about how the Islamic Republic restricts women’s lives. Women’s activists said that the fast dissemination of news on social media about Khodayari and the woman who removed her white head scarf highlights how young Iranians are increasingly using the internet as an outlet to express their frustrations and that it has proved to be a helpful alternative to protests when it comes to pressing for change. Over the last five years I’ve been seeing a new generation of women fight for their rights by using social media,” said the founder of the Open Stadiums campaign.