The Iran protests are not an angry outburst, but the result of generations of trauma | Nasrin Parvaz

For older activists like me, the uprising has reopened old scars and breathed new life into our long struggle for freedom

Women, life, freedom. These words have become the rallying cry for protest that has erupted in the wake of the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran's feared morality police. They are shaking the Iranian regime to its core.

Unlike past movements, this uprising cuts across generations and social classes. For young Iranian women, Amini's death ignited an explosion of pent-up fury at the regime's suppression of women's rights. For older activists like me, it has reopened the scars from previous uprisings and breathed new life into the decades-long struggle for freedom.

Nasrin Parvaz is a women's rights activist and torture survivor from Iran. Her books include A Prison Memoir: One Woman's Struggle in Iran, and the novel The Secret Letters from X to A

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