Drawing the Line: Social Boundaries and State Repression in Iran : Explaining Variation in State Repression in Iran: A Political Process Analysis of Acceptability and Social Boundary Change

This thesis examines variation in state repression within the Islamic Republic of Iran by comparing the 2019 Fuel Protests and the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” (WLF) Protests. Despite relatively constant institutional structures and leadership, the 2022 protests were met with more severe repression, constituting the empirical puzzle of the study. Adopting a relational ontological position from the Contentious Politics tradition, the thesis conceptualises contention as a dynamic interaction between the state and its challengers. Drawing on Charles Tilly’s Political Process Approach and Social Boundary Framework, it develops the theoretically derived argument that variation in state repression is causally related to the regime’s perceived acceptability of its challengers, which is reflected in social boundary change. Using a Structured, Focused Comparison, the analysis examines the scope, intensity and ideological centrality of the boundary change ahead of each protest parallel to observed patterns of repression. The findings indicate that the classification of women demanding freedom as existential threats to the regime’s ideological core corresponded to extreme repression in 2022 while the framing of economic grievances in 2019 was associated with comparatively less severe violence. While somewhat constrained by the study’s comparative design, the results provide support for the proposed relationship between challenger acceptability and state repression.