Fatemiyeh Institute of Higher Education, Shiraz Journal of Women Interdisciplinary Researches 2783-1175 8 1 2026 03 21 Calibrating the Role of Women and Social Institutions in the Reconstruction of Social Order in Post-Crisis Contexts: The Political–Social Crises of the 2010s and 2022 in Iran Calibrating the Role of Women and Social Institutions in the Reconstruction of Social Order in Post-Crisis Contexts: The Political–Social Crises of the 2010s and 2022 in Iran 56 73 735054 10.22034/jwir.2026.2076927.1048 FA Mohsen Afrough PhD in Political Science, Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute, Qom, Iran. 0000-0002-8590-1128 Journal Article 2025 11 06 The social transformations of the 2010s, and particularly the events of 2022, demonstrated that women have become one of the most significant focal points of perceptual and media confrontation against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nevertheless, prevailing analyses often either reduce women to emotional and reactive actors or frame them within the narratives of foreign media as drivers of social rupture. Employing a descriptive–analytical method and relying on documented data, the present study seeks to reveal the actual role of women in the perceptual and normative dynamics of Iranian society through a three-level theoretical framework encompassing post-crisis institutional damages, patterns of women’s agency during periods of crisis, and mechanisms of social order reconstruction in the post-crisis phase. The findings indicate that cognitive operations targeting women through the salience of issues such as dress, dignity, social vitality, maternal roles, and civic participation aim to undermine perceptual cohesion and generate identity fragmentation. However, women’s soft capacities within the family sphere, women-centered social institutions, and local networks have largely neutralized these operations and facilitated the restoration of perceptual and normative fractures. The analysis further shows that by strengthening emotional authorities, redefining the boundary between legitimate protest and disorder, stabilizing the national narrative, and reproducing social capital, women have emerged as key actors in guiding society from perceptual instability toward social organization. Accordingly, the study concludes that understanding the role of women in contemporary Iran must move beyond emotionalized analyses and be rearticulated within the frameworks of “post-crisis order-building” and “collective perception management” a shift that renders the empowerment of women within governance and social institutions a strategic necessity for social security and national stability. The social transformations of the 2010s, and particularly the events of 2022, demonstrated that women have become one of the most significant focal points of perceptual and media confrontation against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Nevertheless, prevailing analyses often either reduce women to emotional and reactive actors or frame them within the narratives of foreign media as drivers of social rupture. Employing a descriptive–analytical method and relying on documented data, the present study seeks to reveal the actual role of women in the perceptual and normative dynamics of Iranian society through a three-level theoretical framework encompassing post-crisis institutional damages, patterns of women’s agency during periods of crisis, and mechanisms of social order reconstruction in the post-crisis phase. The findings indicate that cognitive operations targeting women through the salience of issues such as dress, dignity, social vitality, maternal roles, and civic participation aim to undermine perceptual cohesion and generate identity fragmentation. However, women’s soft capacities within the family sphere, women-centered social institutions, and local networks have largely neutralized these operations and facilitated the restoration of perceptual and normative fractures. The analysis further shows that by strengthening emotional authorities, redefining the boundary between legitimate protest and disorder, stabilizing the national narrative, and reproducing social capital, women have emerged as key actors in guiding society from perceptual instability toward social organization. Accordingly, the study concludes that understanding the role of women in contemporary Iran must move beyond emotionalized analyses and be rearticulated within the frameworks of “post-crisis order-building” and “collective perception management” a shift that renders the empowerment of women within governance and social institutions a strategic necessity for social security and national stability. https://wir.fatemiyehshiraz.ac.ir/article_735054_c31c3b3ab6081f2928087d2e61aecd71.pdf