CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Mandani, Shadi |
|---|---|
| Title | FRAGMENTS OF A REVOLUTION: Women's Non-Heroic Movement in Post-1979 Iran |
| Summary | This thesis studies women's movements in Iran, aiming to trace their changing forms of resistance and protest from 1979 to the present. Challenging the conventional idea that significant social and political change follows rapid, conscious, and organized movements, I conduct content analysis on the material I extract from social media, to showcase the nuanced and unplanned acts of political dissent that are often seen as driving forces of social and political change. The study utilizes several theoretical frameworks, including Asef Bayat’s concept of nonmovements, James C. Scott’s theory of hidden and public transcripts, and Judith Butler’s performative assembly, to explain how acts of everyday resistance mobilize and create moments of rupture in the dominant narrative and how do they connect and create larger alliances across time and space. This research delves into the significance of hijab in the context of Iran as both a symbol of state ideology and a focal point of resistance to unveil the interconnectedness of protesting hijab and other forms of domination and oppression. Arguing for the emergence of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement from “non-heroic” acts, I see it as a plural movement, empowered by its decentralized and spontaneous acts of resistance. My thesis, therefore, challenges the traditional notions of social movements that rely on hierarchical structures, advocating the effectiveness of grassroots and decentralized activism in structural social change. |
| Supervisor | Jones-Gailani, Nadia |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/mandani_shadi.pdf |
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