A joint battle against the hijab? A critical discourse analysis of ''My Stealthy Freedom" and the Western media coverage

Abstract

In May 2014, “My Stealthy Freedom” was created, which is an online social movement where women of Iran can protest against the compulsory hijab by sharing pictures of themselves without hijab, as well as “represent a different identity than they inherited via traditional values and norms” (Karimi 229). The founder of the movement, Iranian journalist and expatriate Masih Alinejad, facilitates the protest and seeks to expand the campaign by engaging with Western media and by calling for international support from tourists and political delegates, under the hashtag #SeeYouInIranWihoutHijab. However, this thesis critically analyzes the different forms of representations of the campaign and the asymmetrical power relations in which it is embedded, resulting in a re-appropriation of its initial understanding. It argues that the highly acclaimed, and uncritical reception of the campaign by the West “can be understood in terms how it reiterates, in a modified form, the Orientalist tradition” (Rastgar 108). In addition, Alinejad’s call upon tourists and politicians to join the movement can be considered as an imperialist move, in which the West is summoned as a savior. Even though the movement seeks to challenge a monolithic understanding of contemporary Iran and women in the Third World, it ultimately reinstates the Orientalist binary – of the West as modern, civilized and superior, opposed to an East that is undeveloped, backward and inferior. Alinejad’s “representation of women as victims of state violence in Iran becomes a key component” to assert this binary (Rastegar 108). This research aims to gain a deeper understanding of women in the Third World and the veil, thereby contributing to the debate on postcolonial feminism and agency.