This week, we read Sima Shakhsari’s
piece “Weblogistan goes to war: representational practices, gendered soldiers
and neoliberal entrepreneurship in diaspora”. Shakhsari begins the article by
giving a brief explanation of the concept of a blogging movement. She troubles
the idea of the internet as a “liberating force” that gives previously unheard
subjects voices. A main problem with this narrative is that it presumes that
before the internet, people (especially women) in Iran had no political voice.
The proliferation of blogging as a way to establish freedom and liberation
neglects the concept that women have been activists before the internet was a
major force in the “war on terror”.
Most studies and accounts of the
weblogistan movement focus on the state vs. civil binary. In other words, the
concept that all of the bloggers that write about Iran, diasporic or otherwise,
all share a larger goal of tackling the Iranian state. Both subjects are a
unified force working in opposition to each other.
There is a sharp contrast in the
portrayal of activist bloggers that is clearly gendered. Male bloggers are
viewed as participants in the political process, who have insight into
underground and powerful activism. Female bloggers are portrayed as notable or
activists if she is “writing about sex and telling the truth of her sex”. The
perceived liberation of the Iranian female is linked to sexual liberation,
whereas with male bloggers, their sexuality is of no concern. By insisting on
this focus on sex and taboos, the perception of female bloggers only becomes
valid if she is declaring some sort of sexual subversion.
Shakhsari also points out that it
is important not to neglect the economic entrepreneurship of the blogging. In
the greater narrative of the “war on terror”, there is a need and demand for
experts or testimonials to provide specific insight into the Iranian
perspective. Shakhsari says, “some diasporic Iranians become entrepreneurs who
participate in the production and marketing of a particular form of knowledge
about Iran” (19). This entrepreneurship can lead to payments or job
opportunities, but can also feed into the larger focus on blogging as a
subversive political act against the Iranian regime.
Molly's post summarizes Shakhsari's main points in a concise, understandable way. Just to add several other points not mentioned, it is interesting how bloggers who blog about Iran but live in Canada are still seen as being in danger in Iran. Also, most of Iranian bloggers posting on Weblogistan have access to computers and the internet -- which excludes many Iranians who might be politically active yet do not have the desire or resources to post on Weblogistan. Thus, Weblogistan is an exclusive space that produces a very specific type of knowledge. Additionally, when Hooshang moved to Canada, he refused to call himself a refugee because of the gendered signifier that suggests it is out of weakness instead of the masculinized word "exile."
ReplyDeleteLast, the documentary, Blogger Wars, as Shakhsari states, "criticizes the Iranian state's censorship, [but] censors bloggers' narratives in the process of editing." It's interesting how the representation of Iranian bloggers, specifically Iranian women bloggers do not talk about the many ways that Iranian women have been actively resisting the wars through political participation and literature a long time before the internet.