By
March 27, 2026 / 5:05 PM PDT / CBS LA
Long before the U.S.-Israeli air strikes began in the Middle East, there had been a battle inside Iran, waged and led largely by women.
As the military strikes continue and analysts debate imminent threats and oil interests, Iranian women are looking for signs that the war and a change in leadership could impact another front: the fight for women's rights.
"You know, I think there's this generational message that young women say to their moms, to their grandmothers, we will get the country back that you lost," said Lisa Daftari, an Iranian American political analyst.
In the winter of 2022, crowds around the globe protested after the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, taken into custody by Iran's morality police for how she was dressed.
Her death exposed to the world a reality that Iranian women have faced and fought for since 1979, when the country transformed into an Islamic republic with religious law severely restricting women. These laws would govern the way they dress, work and receive education.
Nooshin Meshkaty, an Iranian American businessperson, said even though the government has tried to limit people for 47 years, it has always been met with resistance.
"The women especially are so oppressed in Iran and they showed we're done and we can't stand for this anymore, so I think that protest was the beginning of a lot more that is now following," said Sharlene Natan, an Iranian American business owner.
Two sources told CBS News as many as 20,000 people were killed this past January alone when Iran cracked down on mass anti-government protests, that's on top of the thousands estimated killed in demonstrations over the last five decades.
Some Iranian Americans hope this war will finally break the regime.
"I want to see the country of my ancestors, my family, and see a free Iran, and see a part of myself that I never really met before," said Rabbi Tarlan Rabizabeh, an Iranian American religious leader.
Michelle Ahdoot, an Iranian American Jewish activist, said the important thing people need to do is stay focused on freedom and "Western ideology again returning to Iran."
But others are more wary of the war and what it could bring.
"Our experience, my generation, shows that we have to be careful, we have to be critical," said Nayereh Tohidi, an Iranian American academic. "If you are going to leave us with a government of a worse nature than before, what is the achievement?"
Iranian American women across the political spectrum share the dream of a free Iran. Those who spoke to CBS LA said there is a divide on whether this war is on the horizon.
"The military campaign we're seeing right now is meant to lead to that regime change," Daftari said. "The Iranian people have come too far to only come this far."