Woman in Development & Politics

Woman in Development & Politics

Women Write War: A Thematic Analysis of Women’s Literary and Media Accounts of the Twelve-Day War

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Fateme Ghasempour 1
Soghra Ashuri 2
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Social Studies, Women and Family Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.
2 PhD Student, Department of Women and Family Studies, Faculty of Iranian Islamic Lifestyle, Islamic Revolution University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22059/jwdp.2026.411680.1008606
Abstract
The twelve-day imposed war, which occurred with the attack of the Zionist regimeand the direct participation of the US government at dawn on June 13, 2025, produced manifestations of public participation. Although this war was unexpected for the general public, it nevertheless generated scenes, some of which have been documented through the lens of oral history. The aim of this study is to examine the brief notes composed by a collective of female authors regarding the lived experiences of women and their families during the twelve-day war. The primary and secondary themes in these notes were categorized after the initial data was collected using qualitative thematic analysis. The notes under study were those that were published by female authors on the domestic messaging platforms ‘Baleh’ and ‘Eitaa.’ Five secondary themes were identified through the examination of the initial data: ‘emotion-oriented subjectivity,’ ‘feminine analytical historiography,’ ‘conscious role-playing,’ ‘familial cost for the homeland,’ and ‘socio-national responsibility.’ The study’s findings suggest that Iranian women's subjectivity was both active and multifaceted during the twelve-day war. In most of the notes written, Iranian women during the twelve-day war were narrated not as victimized objects, but as subjects with multifaceted agency. The findings underscored the fact that the agency of Iranian women was designed to challenge the enemy’s dominance. The primary objective of Iranian women's resistance against the invading enemy was not merely to safeguard the country's territorial integrity, but also to safeguard the independence of the Iranian human being in their religious-national identity.
Keywords
Feminine Writing
Feminine Agency
Media narrative
Oral History
Twelve-Day War
Subjects
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Woman in Development & Politics
Volume 24, Issue 2
Spring 2026
Pages 265-299