"Hair for freedom" movement in Iran : interreligious dialogue in social media activism?
Navarro, Celina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Peres-Neto, Luiz (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Periodisme i de Ciències de la Comunicació)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de la Comunicació

Date:	2023
Description:	13 pàg.
Abstract:	After the death of Masha Amini at the hands of the Iranian Morality Police for not wearing the hijab, in accordance with what they considered appropriate in September 2022, a social media campaign called "Hair for Freedom" was sparked on different platforms, with videos of women cutting their hair in protest over Iranian women's rights and Amini's death. This paper analyzes whether this digital feminist movement enacted an interreligious dialogue (IRD). Based on content analysis and topic modeling of the publications retrieved from three major platforms, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, the results indicate that this was mainly a Western movement focused on women's bodies as a political symbol in authoritarian Islamic regimes and has not achieved an IRD since most social media posts reproduced the hashtag #HairForFredom without opening a religious discussion. As observed in other digital movements, conclusions indicate that social media activism does not offer an opportunity to engage in dialogues to enlightenthe public sphere. On the contrary, the focus appears to provide users with the opportunity to enhance their reputation by engaging in popular social media campaigns that promote social change.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Iran ; Masha Amini ; Hair for freedom ; Interreligious dialogue ; Social media
Published in:	Religions, Vol. 14 Núm. 5 (2023) , p. 602, ISSN 2077-1444

DOI: 10.3390/rel14050602

13 p, 1.5 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Social and Legal Sciences > InCom-UAB – the Institute of Communication at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles