Shamsi, Mitra. (2023, September 4-6). Iranian Feminist Digital Activism: Politics of Visibility. ATGENDER* Conference 2023: Feminist Pedagogy of/beyond Borders. Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Building on an archive of feminist digital activism in Iran, in this presentation, I investigate how “mediation opportunities” of digital media platforms, particularly the potential “visibility” they offer, are being appropriated by Iranian feminists and women’s rights campaigners to feed gendered issues and feminist perspectives into ongoing public discourses.
I propose that Iranian women’s campaigns are performed in hybrid spaces. In these spaces online and offline platforms, along with alternative digital and mainstream media, intertwine serving to mobilise support, capture the attention of both local and international mainstream media, and to create counter-narratives through producing and disseminating (self-)mediated textual and visual digital content.
Furthermore, I argue that feminist digital activism in Iran, in conjunction with the historical social and political tensions around women’s issues, are informed, and shaped by the dynamics- particularly visual affordances- of digital media. These affordances provide feminist activists with potential visibility to articulate their women’s demands and issues, thereby enabling them to feed their perspectives into ongoing public discourses.
Atgender | Spring Conference 2023
*ATGENDER: The European Association for Gender Research, Education and Documentation