Resisting silence : Moments of empowerment in Iranian women's blogs

Jaborooty, Maryam Paknahad and Baker, Paul (2017) Resisting silence : Moments of empowerment in Iranian women's blogs. Gender and Language, 11 (1). pp. 77-99. ISSN 1747-6321

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Abstract

This paper illustrates how women in Iran use blogs to write about their relationships and feelings as a way of providing momentarily empowerment in a society that places restrictions on their freedom. We examine a relatively under-explored form of blogging, common to Iran, which we call 'love blogging', and we carry out a qualitative analysis of a small sample of four blog postings from different Iranian women which are used to illustrative different techniques that women use in order to challenge hegemonic gendered discourses in their society. We show how Iranian women use blogs as a way of revealing their innermost thoughts, creating alternative identities and articulating what is left 'unsaid' to their partners. The postings chosen highlight the disempowered status of women in Iranian society, from staying at home to carry out servicework to cases of marital rape and other forms of violence which Iranian women are expected to silently endure. The blog postings also indicate how women use techniques to avoid censorship, including use of metaphor, ambiguity, altered idioms and images.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Gender and Language
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3318
Subjects:
?? blogscensorshipiranrelationshipswomengender studieslanguage and linguisticsphilosophylinguistics and language ??
ID Code:
154428
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
29 Apr 2021 12:25
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
07 Nov 2023 23:49