Maria J. Stephan is the author, with Erica Chenoweth, of Power of non-violence, published in French in March 2021 (Calmann-Lévy). In this translation of a 2011 book, Why Civil Resistance Works. The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, Columbia University Press, the two researchers studied 320 armed and unarmed conflicts (from 1900 to 2006) and showed that over the century non-violent civil resistance has been more effective. A declining trend.
How do you characterize the Iranian uprising of the past three months?
It is a major movement. It brought together a wide variety of people across the country in terms of origin, age, gender, profession, and it was led by women. It gave rise to symbolic modes of action, such as women burning or removing their veils or cutting off a lock of hair.
We also saw parallel actions such as the general strike at the beginning of December, which spread to around fifty cities, economic boycotts, the closing of bazaars…; doctors are known to have treated wounded demonstrators in secret. This diversity of components generally constitutes a determining element for the success of nonviolent movements.
The brutal repression of the Iranian regime, however, seems to have put an end to the demonstrations…
It is always very difficult to predict when and how a movement like this, which comes after a series of other non-violent protests in recent years, will end. Demonstrators were hanged, women were shot in the genitals. The message is clear: “Stay home. But the question remains of resilience in the face of the regime’s increasingly brutal repression.
You emphasize the determining role of women in the movements. Why ?
We see it in Iran, we saw it in Sudan, with this iconic image of a woman on a truck in the demonstrations against Al-Bashir: the participation of women is often a key element. First of all, they tend to be good organizers and in many movements they do this behind the scenes to make sure protesters have access to medical care, food…
Research, such as that of Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks, has also shown that women’s active participation and leadership in nonviolent movements tends to lead to greater success. This is explained by the fact that their presence in the front line is correlated with a greater discipline of non-violence, which leads to greater participation of the population, one of the criteria for the success of a movement.
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