“I Won't Give up on My Rights Even If I Don't Get What I Deserve”: From Victimization to Resistance

Variations in help-seeking behaviors of domestic violence (DV) survivors have been extensively studied across contexts. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Iranian women who filed petitions against their abusive husbands, this study uses legal consciousness to examine survivors’ journeys in a theocratic and authoritarian context. It explores how survivors understand the role of law and how that understanding shapes their help-seeking strategies. The legal consciousness framework shows how restrictive gender norms initially position survivors “outside the law,” discouraging formal engagement. As their understandings of their experiences shift, they begin to see the law as a potential resource. Their legal engagement becomes more strategic as their legal consciousness evolves into a hybrid “with-and-against the law” stance, shaped by interactions with legal actors. This study contributes to feminist and sociolegal scholarship by deepening our understanding of the dynamics that shape survivors’ legal consciousness and legal mobilization in a theocratic and authoritarian setting.