The Effect of Multidimensional Poverty on Informal Strategies of Women’s Political Activism (Case study: Women Protesting the Lack of Water in the Village of Naqdi-ye Olya in 2021)

Multidimensional poverty is one of the reasons rural women resort to informal activism strategies. In conjunction with the circumstances of rural women and the obstacles they face on a daily basis, it motivates them to advocate for political transformation and demand change. The women of Naqdi-ye Olya village in Meshkinshahr who were protesting opted for an informal approach to resolve their water concerns. This approach was influenced by their daily experiences of water transportation and the inefficiency of rural institutional mechanisms. The objective of this investigation is to study the influence of multidimensional poverty on the informal political activism strategies of rural women, with a particular emphasis on the lived experiences of the women in Naqdi-ye Olya. Institutional ethnography serves as the theoretical framework, emphasizing marginalized communities’ lived experiences. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the interview data. The findings reveal that the protesting women obstructed the road from Ardabil to Meshkinshahr for the inadequacy of rural institutional mechanisms in addressing their water problem. The women’s awareness of their collective action power was raised, and the issue was transformed into a political matter because of the rapid response from officials and the dissemination of their protest video on social media. However, the water issue has persisted due to the transient nature of this informal solution and the incomplete responses from officials.