No abstract

We use social psychology research on emotional selection of information to model how social movements use social media in the formation of affective publics and apply our model to Instagram post data from the My Stealthy Freedom anti-mandatory hijab movement in Iran. Thematic analysis applied to samples of posts and comments revealed six main themes, one of which, aggression, includes three subthemes related to verbal aggression and physical violence. As the level of aggression increased in Instagram videos, the level of aggression in the comments increased as well, and videos containing verbal aggression and physical violence had more likes and comments than did non-aggressive and non-violent videos. We discuss implications of these findings for research on social movements and the formation of affective publics.

Iran’s #MeToo movement started three years prior to the global #MeToo when in 2017 women were protesting mandatory hijab laws in Iran. #MeToo became viral in 2020 in Iran. This chapter discusses the legal and cultural perspectives toward sexual and gender violence in Iran. A content analysis is conducted on tweets related to the #MeToo and other related hashtags, such as #Rape and #NoMeansNo. Revealing stories, rising awareness, political and cultural context, role of power, class, and race are the shared themes found in the content of tweets related to the movement. The consequences and effects of Iranian #MeToo movement and their connections with global #MeToo movement shows that the Iranian #MeToo is adapted to the local Iranian conditions and is related to major questions regarding gender-based violence in Iran. Despite this specificity to local conditions, the Iranian version of #MeToo has used and modified the main claims and hashtags of the global #MeToo. This analysis situates the Iranian #MeToo in both the global and local conversations regarding feminism and women’s rights.