Women and activism in social media (Case study: “Stealthy Freedom of Women” page in the Facebook)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Faculty Member of Culture, Art and Communication Research Institute, Iran

2 MA in Global Media and Communication at Helsinki University, Finland

Abstract

"My Stealthy Freedom" is the name of a Facebook page that demands to protest against compulsory Hijab and demonstrate willing of clothing freedom for women in Iran. The foundation and activity of the page had been described as a "social movement". Some western media claimed that this would be a successful social movement for Iranian women and some others asserted that this page would be a new platform in which Iranian women represent a new image of their identity. In this paper, analyzing qualitatively a purposive sample of photos with their captions, we are questioning these claims again. Our findings indicate that despite some excitements about a new social movement for Iranian women in western media and western human rights association, "My Stealthy Freedom" cannot be considered as a new applicable social movement against Iran's government and the law of compulsory hijab in Iran. Finally, we conclude that this Facebook page is not only incapable of organizing a real social movement against hijab, but also can be a well-suited example for the concept of slacktivism.

Keywords

References

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Woman in Development & Politics
Volume 15, Issue 2
July 2017
Pages 205-222

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