Bahareh Badiei

My research, set against the backdrop of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, examines the complex terrain of feminist activism for the liberation of Iranian women. The research aims to uncover how digital activism supports or subverts women’s movements under the scrutiny of state-sanctioned oppressions and global imperialist discourses. I focus on the role of social media platforms as spaces for perpetuating imperial feminist agendas while also amplifying the voices of anti-capitalist feminist collectives. At the heart of my study is the critical question of how Iranian feminists in the diaspora employ digital platforms to challenge local gender oppressive policies along with global imperialist influences. Focusing on three periods of digital feminism during the past decade, I use feminist and digital ethnography, content analysis, computational analysis, and in-depth interviews to critically analyze online campaigns, probe into activist strategies, and assess the impact of social media for feminist resistance. The project seeks to both contribute to feminist anthropology and to explore the dynamics of digital spaces as sites of political negotiation and identity formation. My work will provide new insights into the digital expressions of resistance and agency, underscoring the evolving anthropology of social movements in the digital age.