This year’s conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR2025) will take place from October 15 to 18 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under the theme “Ruptures.” Dr. Mitra Shamsi, guest researcher at the CAIS, will present her paper titled “Unravelling the Nation: Digital Contestations of Gendered Narratives in the Iranian Women, Life, Freedom Movement” in the session “Gender Risks & Resistances” on October 18, 2025. In addition, she will chair the panel on “Media Discourses on Digital Phenomena” on October 16.
Abstract of Her Paper
The Women, Life, Freedom (WLF) movement in 2022 marked a historic shift in Iranian politics by centring gendered dynamics and issues in public discourse. During and after the uprising, digital platforms have become battlegrounds where competing political forces struggle to frame and control narratives around women’s issues and national identity. Within this contested space, feminist activists have played a crucial role by appropriating affordances of digital spaces to challenge dominant narratives, constructing counter-narratives that reframed women’s issues and gendered debates.
In this context, this research investigates how competing gendered narratives were constructed and contested on digital platforms, examining feminist activists’ media and discursive strategies in navigating and disrupting digital patriarchal nationalist narratives inside Iran and across the diaspora. Applying a multi-sited mobile ethnographic approach, this study analyses an archive of textual and visual materials published online to explore key gendered discussions and highlight how different political actors shaped, resisted, and reframed dominant gendered narratives.
It is argued that digital platforms in the Iranian context have emerged as contested and paradoxical spaces, simultaneously enabling political mobilisation and reinforcing digital nationalism as a mechanism of discursive control. By analysing feminist engagement with these platforms, this research highlights the nuanced interplay between digital activism, gender politics, and nationalism, contributing to broader debates on the role of digital media in shaping contemporary political struggles.
Further information on the complete AoIR2025 program can be found on the website:
https://www.conftool.org/aoir2025/sessions.php