Iranian Feminist Digital Activism:Construction of Gendered Discourses.....

IFLS Speaker Mitra Shamsi Presents:

IRANIAN FEMINIST DIGITAL ACTIVISM: CONSTRUCTION OF GENDERED DISCOURSES ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

My project looks at the mediation of Iranian feminist activism and debates around gender issues on social media platforms as this is shaped by the country’s political opportunity structure on one hand, and by the affordances of digital media on the other. Centring its analysis on the generation of narratives and images on Instagram, the research interrogates the production and circulation of feminist discourses by Iranian feminists and women’s rights campaigners.  Applying a digital ethnographic approach, media practices and strategies of self-mediation of activists are investigated, and it shows how rival feminist discourses at home and the diaspora compete for visibility and legitimacy on digital platforms. While many activists are appropriating digital media as an alternative media, this research frames part of the activist’s digital campaigns as forms of popular feminism that centre on the mediation of individual woman’s self-branding and empowerment.