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

Introduction

Subjectivity no longer carries its former meaning and concept; rather, it is a complex set of actions that individuals perform and express based on the multiple roles they assume. Subjectivity is a blend of actions based on conscious or unconscious decisions that ultimately lead to a responsible choice. Although subjectivity takes on slightly different definitions in various schools of thought, what is certain in defining it is that it is an important component in distinguishing humans from other beings (Hall, 2017: 180-188).

In Iranian society, women's agency took on a new meaning with the victory of the Islamic Revolution and the onset of the war, which was particularly tied to the portrayal of the ideal woman of the Islamic Revolution by Imam Khomeini. The 'Fatima Zahra-style woman' and the 'Zaynab-style woman' were two models that defined the subjectivity of Iranian women after the victory of the Islamic Revolution and the beginning of the war. The Fatima Zahra-style woman symbolized a woman who is modest, and whose active role at home is the virtuous upbringing of children and being a good wife. This woman avoids intermingling [with unrelated men]. The Zaynab-style woman, while possessing the characteristics of the Fatima Zahra-style woman, also stood in the midst of the battle, whether bearing arms or acting as a medic, a reporter, and so on ( Yousefi Taha et al., 2022: 171-173).

With the outbreak of the twelve-day imposed war on the country at dawn on June 13, 2025, by the Zionist regime and the United States of America, despite the global internet being blocked in the interest of the ruling system, the national internet and domestic messengers remained connected. Women's role-playing was significantly visible in the form of writing on domestic messengers. In these notes, various types of proactive actions by Iranian women on the Bale and Eitaa messaging platforms were reported. The significance of the present study lies in its attempt to illuminate the profound layers within the notes that sought to depict the various possibilities for Iranian women's role-playing in the twelve-day war imposed on the country.



Research Methodology

In the present study, thematic analysis was conducted using the Braun and Clarke method. Initially, notes from the twelve-day war were collected that possessed several characteristics: they had to be written by Iranian women; published on the domestic messengers Eitaa and Bale; not be fantasies, but rather narrate a reality arising from the twelve-day war; be prepared under the supervision of expert writing groups; and be short, not novels or long stories.

Based on this, through purposive sampling and using the snowball method, we reached three women's writing groups that published short notes about the twelve-day war on their respective channels. These three groups are Reyhaneh (affiliated with the Office for Publishing the Works of the Leader of the Revolution), Dooreham Gram (The Network of Women Narrators), and Banouye Farhang.

The number of notes collected was 79. The notes examined in this research were published between June 13th and July 22nd. Each note was studied individually, and the initial data were extracted after reading each note twice. These data were extracted based on open coding. Based on the affinities and conceptual constructs, each of these data points was placed into an overall set under the category of initial themes. The conceptual network of each initial theme, based on their affinities with each other and differences from other themes, formed the secondary themes. The secondary themes represent the final and prominent output of the present study. In this research, 200 initial data points were extracted, from which, after categorization, 13 initial themes and 5 secondary themes were derived.



Findings

In the present study, by examining 79 notes, 210 initial raw data points were obtained. The result of examining and analyzing these data led to 13 initial themes and 5 secondary themes.

1. Affect-driven Subjectivity

Although in mainstream social science thought, emotion has been cited as a weakness in women's subjectivity and proactive action, the analysis of data extracted from women's writings about the twelve-day war indicates the proactive action of Iranian women. In other words, women's emotions, including fear, suffering, anxiety, and anger, were managed by resorting to a force beyond human will (the everlasting divine power). This, while leading women to overcome their afflictions, also provided astonishing power for effective and proactive agency for women in the family and society during the days of the twelve-day war. Based on this, the four extracted initial themes are: "Supporting the Family," "Supporting Society," "Patience in the Face of Suffering," and "Clinging to the Divine Rope."

a) Crisis management in the family

b) Social participation oriented toward responsibility

c) Shared culture of resistance

d) Clinging to the rope of Allah

2. Analytical Feminist Historiography

Among the actions of women in the twelve-day war was their narration of history. They were like a traditional epic narrator (Naqqaleh) who, while recounting the current epic, also casts a narrative glance at the epics of the past. She seeks to draw attention to the authenticity of the goal and encourages perseverance by recounting the historical background of overcoming difficult obstacles. Under this theme, there are two initial themes: "Events Before the Twelve-Day War" and "Events After the Twelve-Day War":

a) Narrative of epic-social history

b) Oral historiography

3. Conscious Role-playing

Women played a significant role in the formation, strengthening, and preservation of the formed national unity. In this regard, they manifested two styles of role-playing: "Epic Courage" and "Practicing Steadfastness."

a) Conscious risk-taking

b) Conscious self-recovery in jihad

4. Familial Sacrifice for the Homeland

Among the important roles played by Iranian women in the twelve-day war was narrating the steadfastness and resistance of Iranian families and, extending from that, social resistance against the Zionist enemy. In the meantime, however, they did not forget to narrate the story of Generation Z and spoke of their commitment to the homeland. Under this secondary theme, there are three initial themes: "Narrating the Field of Resistance," "Narrating the Resistant Family," and "The Pioneering Role of Generation Z":

a) Elegies of sacrifice for the homeland

b) Narrative of the resistance family

c) Generation Z's commitment to the homeland

5. National Social Responsibility

One cannot ignore the apparent and ideological differences among active and engaged Iranian women in defense of the homeland during the twelve-day war! This is clearly seen in the women's writings. Accordingly, what caused this unity were two components: "Preserving Unity" and "Eradicating Israel."

a) Preserving unity

b) Israel as the common enemy

c) People's alignment with the government



Conclusion

In critical historical junctures, the agency of Iranian women transforms into an organized and responsible social action, wherein the preservation of societal cohesion and commitment to ideals are directly influenced by the proactive agency of women. Given that the dominant paradigm in social sciences, including its various subfields such as women's studies, is predominantly oriented towards Western perspectives, it inherently overlooks or ignores other actors outside this framework. Nevertheless, the innovations of Iranian women in feminine agency during the war have forged a new dimension of subjectivity, which holds the potential to open a new horizon in theorizing women's studies based on the Islamic Revolution (Mansouri & Samadi, 2025: 834-835).