Abstract
Anniversaries occupy a pivotal place in the politics of memory, functioning as contested arenas where states, societies and diasporas negotiate identity, legitimacy and justice. Focusing on the Mahsa Amini anniversaries (2023–2025) and the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement, this paper argues that commemorative practices have reconfigured domestic mnemonic contestation into a transnational human-rights narrative that recalibrates claims of state legitimacy in international arenas. The analysis integrates Politics of Memory, Mnemonic Security and Contested Memories with debates on human rights in International Relations to theorise how anniversaries travel across scales. Using qualitative thematic content analysis, the study traces mechanisms through which anniversaries operate as instruments of political communication, social mobilisation and reputational politics. It identifies patterned tensions between state-sanctioned narratives and alternative societal or diasporic memories, highlighting processes of framing, ritualised digital commemoration, securitisation and institutional uptake. By situating the Amini anniversaries within broader literatures on memory, security and human rights, the paper contributes a mechanism-focused account of how commemorations mediate the interplay of authority, resistance and normative claims in contentious political contexts, and clarifies the conditions under which mnemonic struggles become internationalised.