Analyzing Iran's Border Provinces Through the Framework of the Security-Development Nexus and the Woman, Life, Freedom Protests
Article
Lob, E, Koruzhde, M. (2026). Analyzing Iran's Border Provinces Through the Framework of the Security-Development Nexus and the Woman, Life, Freedom Protests
. 35(3), 10.1111/dome.70026
Lob, E, Koruzhde, M. (2026). Analyzing Iran's Border Provinces Through the Framework of the Security-Development Nexus and the Woman, Life, Freedom Protests
. 35(3), 10.1111/dome.70026
Building on previous scholarship (Elling 2013, Dudoignon, 2017, Lob & Habibi, 2019), this paper argues that the state's historical marginalization and securitization of the ethnic-minority border provinces, coupled with their economic underdevelopment and sociopolitical discrimination, have correlated with political violence and popular protest—which, in turn, have led to greater state repression. Methodologically, this paper is based on a dataset that we acquired from the Statistics Organization of Iran on development outcomes at the provincial level between 2006 and 2021. Within the framework of the security-development nexus and social movement theory, we contend that the uneven development between the Persian-majority center and ethnic-minority periphery, combined with other grievances that transcend economics, has increased the discontent of residents and their propensity to participate in political violence and popular protest against the state. In response, the state has subjected the border provinces to heightened securitization and created a vicious cycle of repression and radicalization. Our analysis of the data and other sources demonstrate a direct correlation between lower development and higher repression during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in these provinces, particularly Sistan and Baluchestan, Kurdistan, and West Azerbaijan.
