The role of digital media and technologies in enabling, shaping, and challenging the discourses of social movements (case study, Woman-Life-Freedom movement in Iran).


Parizad Bahardoost, Islamic Azad University

This research explores how digital media and technologies helped opposition groups in Iran communicate their Woman-Life-Freedom movement, which started in 2022 after the death a Kurdish woman arrested for not wearing hijab. The movement demanded the end of compulsory hijab against women. How digital tools influenced the mobilization and organization of social movements, and how they challenged the government and other groups in power. Also examines how digital tools, enabled opposition groups to reach out to global audiences and networks, to amplify their messages and narratives, to document and expose human rights violation, and to create alternative spaces for expression and resistance.

This paper will be presented at the following session: