Why Freedom, Why Now?

The word Azadi—freedom—echoes across Iran’s history as both a rallying cry and a contested ideal. In recent years, it has reemerged in the slogans of uprisings and the chants of exiled protestors, capturing public frustration and civic longing. But what do Iranians mean by freedom today? Is it the freedom to vote, dress, speak, believe, or belong?

Over the past century, the meaning of freedom in Iranian society has shifted dramatically. Political systems, ideologies, and intellectual currents have each defined, narrowed, or expanded their scope. As Iran faces a crossroads, this article traces the evolution of Azadi to understand how it has been claimed, denied, reimagined, and how it might serve as a foundation for Iran’s future.

A Century of Azadi: Historical and Political Evolutions

1906–1953: Freedom as Constitutional Order
The Constitutional Revolution marked the first formal demand for a law-based political order. Azadi meant curbing absolute monarchy through a national assembly, an independent judiciary, and a free press. Thinkers like Mirza Malkom Khan and Ahmad Kasravi debated reconciling individual liberty with national identity in a modernizing Islamic-Iranian context.

1953–1979: Freedom as Anti-Imperial Resistance
In the wake of the 1953 coup, the meaning of Azadi shifted toward national sovereignty and resistance to foreign domination. Mohammad Mossadegh became a symbol of democratic aspiration, cut short. At the same time, revolutionary ideologues like Ali Shariati and Jalal Al-e Ahmad recast freedom as resistance to Western political and cultural influence.

1979–1997: Freedom as Religious Duty
Following the Islamic Revolution, the ruling elite redefined freedom through an Islamic lens. Under the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih, Azadi became conditional, permitted only within the boundaries of divine law. Dissent was reinterpreted as deviation from religious orthodoxy, and personal freedoms were subordinated to ideological purity.

1997–2022: Freedom as Rights and Identity
The Reform era opened new space for reinterpretation. Azadi came to encompass cultural expression, digital speech, women’s rights, and political reform. Yet structural limits persisted. Movements such as the Green Movement (2009) and the Women’s Protests (2022) expanded the term to include bodily autonomy, gender equity, and freedom from coercion.

Post-2022: Freedom as Civic Dignity and Ethical Agency
Recent uprisings signal a shift toward Azadi as civic dignity—the right to be heard, to live without fear, and to participate meaningfully in shaping society. This phase also reflects broader global trends toward ethical resistance, civic solidarity, and nonviolent civil power.

The Many Lenses of Azadi

Philosophical Lens
The concept of freedom has deep roots in Iranian thought. Shervin Vakili identifies Zoroaster’s teachings in the Gathas as an early articulation of ethical free will—freedom not from society, but toward truth and righteousness. From a modern perspective, Mousa Ghaninejad emphasizes the necessity of individual moral agency in any meaningful understanding of freedom.

Legal Lens
Iran’s constitutions—1906 and 1979—claim to protect freedoms of belief, expression, and assembly. Yet parallel legal structures have consistently limited these rights: press laws, hijab mandates, and revolutionary courts. The judiciary has often served political rather than constitutional ends. The contrast between codified rights and lived experience remains one of the central tensions in Iranian life.

Cultural and Literary Lens
Persian literature and art have long carried the burden of expressing forbidden freedoms. Forough Farrokhzad, Sadegh Hedayat’s existential despair, and today’s protest murals and underground films offer visions of Azadi beyond the reach of law or politics. These works explore freedom not merely as a social condition, but as an inner necessity and act of imagination.

Historical-Structural Lens
Drawn from Abbas Amanat’s framework
The evolution of Azadi cannot be separated from Iran’s deeper structural and historical dualities. Abbas Amanat identifies tensions between din and dolat (religion and state), bum and bar (center and periphery), and Iran and Aniran (self and other) as central to the Iranian experience of modernity.

The post-1979 entanglement of religion and governance institutionalized a model in which freedom was subordinate to spiritual conformity. Meanwhile, centralized power in Tehran often excluded peripheral and ethnic regions from meaningful civic participation. These dualities help explain why Azadi remains such a fragile and fluctuating ideal.

Ethical-Spiritual Lens
Bahá’í Thought and Abdu’l-Bahá’s Vision of Moral Freedom
A neglected yet vital strand of Iran’s intellectual heritage comes from the Bahá’í Faith, which in the 19th century advanced early concepts of freedom of conscience, gender equality, and human unity. Though excluded from national discourse, the ideas of Abdu’l-Bahá—a civic-minded thinker—remain relevant to today’s conversations on ethical freedom.

He framed liberty not as personal license, but as moral responsibility: the ability to act justly, serve others, and uphold universal values. Reengaging with this neglected perspective does not require theological alignment but can enrich the pluralism of Iran’s intellectual landscape. In imagining Azadi for the future, this vision of freedom as ethical agency offers a bridge between tradition and transformation.

Civic Lens
Aram Hessami’s Two Three Words presents a vision of freedom grounded not in defiance but in civic responsibility. In this framework, Azadi is not simply liberation from oppression—it is a call to participate in building a just society. Freedom becomes meaningful only when exercised in service of collective well-being, requiring citizens to move beyond grievance and toward contribution, cooperation, and ethical reasoning.

Hessami emphasizes that a functioning civic sphere depends on nurturing habits of dialogue, self-restraint, and moral agency. In contrast to authoritarian control and reactive populism, this model of freedom invites individuals to shape public life through conscious engagement and critical thought. It is a freedom that carries obligations: to listen, to reflect, to compromise, and to imagine institutions not yet realized. In this light, Azadi transforms from a protest slogan into a practice of democratic renewal, especially urgent in a society fragmented by repression and distrust.

From Slogan to Substance: Reclaiming Azadi

Today, Azadi risks being hollowed out by overuse and political co-optation. Reclaiming its meaning must be rooted in lived experience and ethical aspiration. This includes:

• The right to dissent without fear
  
• The power to participate in public life
  
• The responsibility to build inclusive institutions

Instead of being forced to choose between Western liberalism and ideological authoritarianism, Iranians can draw on their own philosophical, literary, and civic traditions to define freedom on their own terms.

Imagining a Freer Future

As Iran navigates an age of uncertainty, Azadi remains both a memory and a hope. Its meanings have shifted—but its power endures. By reimagining freedom not as a fixed ideal but as an evolving civic practice rooted in ethics, dignity, and dialogue, Iranians may find in it not just resistance to the past but a blueprint for the future.

Iran 1400 Project invites scholars, activists, artists, and citizens to join that conversation and shape a vision of Azadi not as a destination but as a process of becoming.