The research for rights and freedom of Iranian women in the changing world: based on example of Iranian women living in Manisa

The Iranian revolution, which took place on February 11, 1979, and resulted in the end of the Shah period and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is still being discussed not only politically but also in terms of its social and cultural effects. With the end of the Iran-Iraq war, which started shortly after the revolution and continued for eight years, in 1988, the effects of the revolution on the Iranian people began to be felt more. The freedom debates that started in different societies with the effect of the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc in the early 1990s meant that the social conditions were favourable for the Iranian people, who only felt the new face of the revolution, to express their objections and reactions. One of the most important actors of this civil disobedience that started in Iran has been women. In particular, some of the women with relatively high levels of education chose to resist the oppressive regime in Iran, while others chose to migrate to countries, they thought were freer. Number of Iranian immigrants in Turkey has reached nearly quadrupled between 2014 and 2018. Out of 176.355 immigrants who migrated to Turkey in 2018, 2773 consists of Iranian immigrants. There is a similar situation in Manisa, which is in the provinces where Iranian immigrants reside. The aim of this study is to reveal how the social conditions that constitute the reason for the search for "rights and freedom" are perceived by women, based on the example of Iranian women living in Manisa. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 Iranian participant women, who live in Manisa, within the scape of qualitative research. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed thematically. At the end of analysis, it was seen that Iranian women tended to seek freedom due to the oppressive nature of the political government in their country. It was analyzed that they migrated to Turkey as a result of their seeking for freedom, because they were exposed to gender discrimination especially in clothing, marriage and working life in Iran. It has been reached that they think being a woman in Turkey is more free compared to Iran, but it isn't possible at the level of European contries.