Over the past several weeks, Iran has experienced a series of women-led demonstrations sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in custody after being arrested for allegedly breaking a rule related to the mandatory wearing of hijabs. Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say they've heard about recent uprisings in Iran, according to polling this week by the Economist and YouGov.
Nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) strongly or somewhat approve of recent protests in Iran, while only 7% disapprove. Though American men and women from both political parties generally support the demonstrations in Iran, women who are Democrats exhibit especially strong approval.
American men and women have different views on the extent of gender disparities in Iran and in the United States, with women seeing disparities in both countries and men only seeing them in Iran.
American men believe there is a large gap in the treatment of Iranian women and men, with 80% saying women in the country aren't treated fairly and only 35% saying the same of men. When asked about the treatment of women and men in the U.S., men are equally likely to say that members of each gender don't receive fair treatment (29% say women don't, 28% say men don't).
American women, on the other hand, see gaps in Iran and also, to a somewhat lesser extent, in the U.S. As many as 82% of women in the U.S. say Iranian women don't receive fair treatment in their country, compared to only 15% who say the same of Iranian men. Women also see themselves as disadvantaged relative to men in the U.S. American women are three times as likely to say women in the U.S. aren't treated fairly (58% say this) as they are to say men aren't (16%).
– Carl Bialik and Linley Sanders contributed to this article
This poll was conducted on October 1 - 4, 2022 among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens. Explore more on the methodology and data for this Economist/YouGov poll.
Image: Getty (Spencer Platt)
