Journal of University Studies

Journal of University Studies

Forms of resistance of the female student subject: An ethnographic study in Tehran universities

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors
Fereshteh Tousi 1
Mohammadamin zandi 2
1 PhD Student in Political Thought , Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
2 Master’s Degree in Political Thought in Islam, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
10.22035/jous.2024.5499.1101
Abstract
Since their establishment, universities in Iran have played an active role in social and political spheres, while simultaneously being influenced by transformations in these areas. Consequently, they have always been the focus of both micro- and macro-structures of power and subjected to various forms of control. In response to this process, students, as the main actors within academic spaces, have demonstrated diverse and multilayered forms of resistance. Among them, the position and role of female students hold special significance; not only do they confront the prevailing power structures within the university, but they also face gender relations. This dual challenge contributes to the particular complexity of their resistance experience. This study employs a critical ethnographic method to examine the forms of resistance exhibited by female students in Tehran’s universities from the mid-2010s until 2023. The main focus is on analyzing their actions and reactions against multiple forms of power — formal, institutional, structural, and even customary — within the academic environment. In this context, female students are divided into three groups: ordinary students, institutional activists, and non-institutional activists. Each group demonstrates a distinct type of resistance: “rejected resistance” among ordinary students, “resistance as praxis” among institutional activists, and “fluid resistance” among non-institutional activists. Simultaneously, by looking at the experiences of female students in the 2010s (corresponding to the 2011–2021 decade in the Iranian calendar), it becomes evident that many of these resistances took shape not only in formal and visible frameworks but also at the margins, within everyday relationships, or even through silence and selective passivity. The lived experiences of these students have challenged not only the official, male-centered narrative of the university but also the symbolic and hierarchical order governing academic spaces. They have opened new horizons for the possibility of subjectivity, agency, and the redefinition of the female student’s position. As a result, two types of subjectivities emerge within this framework of resistance: one is the solitary desiring subject, and the other is the collective subject embodied in a shared will.
Keywords
Student subject
resistance in theuniversity
power and resistance
female student

Subjects

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Journal of University Studies
Volume 2, Issue 3 - Serial Number 7
Spring 2024
Spring 2024
Pages 75-103

  • Receive Date 02 February 2024
  • Revise Date 15 March 2024
  • Accept Date 16 March 2024