Religion Meets Gender: The Impact of Sunni Islamic Discourse on the Jina Uprising in Eastern Kurdistan

Abstract The Jina uprising, ignited by the state-sanctioned killing of Jina (Mahsa) Amini in September 2022, marked a historic convergence of gender, ethnic, and religious resistance in Iran, particularly in Eastern Kurdistan (also known as Rojhelat or Iranian Kurdistan). Although the movement was initially framed as a feminist revolution, Sunni Muslim clerics and leaders played a pivotal role in shaping its trajectory. This article examines how religious discourse catalyzed and sustained the uprising, challenging conventional secular frames of social movement theory. Sunni-majority Eastern Kurdistan became a hub for both Kurdish nationalist and religious mobilization as clerics leveraged mosques and sermons to amplify the movement’s demands, intertwining gender-based struggles with calls for ethnic and religious recognition. Despite historical restrictions on political organization, networks of Sunni Islamic groups and clerical bodies provided leadership, solidarity, and moral legitimacy to protesters, even as state violence escalated. By contextualizing the Jina uprising within Iran’s Persian Shiʿi nationalist framework, this article demonstrates how religion, often sidelined in analyses of modern uprisings, remains a powerful force of resistance, uniting diverse grievances against multilayered systemic oppression. It also is a reminder of the duality of religion as both a site of state control and a transformative vehicle for recognition and liberation.