The gendered politics of Iran-U.S. relations: sanctions, the JCPOA and women’s security

Abstract

I examine the decades of fraught Iran–U.S. relations through a conceptual feminist IR lens, and I situate the relationship within the broader MENA region beset with rivalries, conflicts and crises. The spotlight is on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the unilateral U.S. withdrawal in 2018, the long sanctions regime imposed on Iran, and the gendered effects on women’s welfare and security. I argue that Iran–U.S. mutual hostility has enhanced tensions in the Middle East, reinforced militarised masculinities and bolstered the patriarchal political forces in Iran – which became the target of the 2022 female-led protests. Building on feminist arguments about the connection between domestic and international affairs, the article elucidates the relationship of sanctions to ‘the continuum of violence’.