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Iranian Mourning Mothers Movement: An Everyday Emotional Practice for Regime Change in Iran
Abstract by Naima Mohammadi On Session IV-19  (Death and Mourning in Iran)

On Tuesday, November 12 at 2:30 pm

2024 Annual Meeting

Abstract
This article delves into the role of the Iranian Mourning Mothers Campaign as one of the most effective digital movements in holding the Islamic regime of Iran accountable for massive violations of human rights, gender injustice, and the killing of a large group of protesters over the past forty years. Drawing inspiration from Sarah Ahmed's cultural politics of emotion, the paper scrutinizes the Iranian Mourning Mothers movement as a case study, shedding light on the transformative role of motherhood by everyday emotional practices as rich and complex sites interwoven in struggles for social change. Contrary to the approach of Western feminism, which values ignoring the feelings of femininity as a part of the development of the feminist movement, this study emphasizes the role of motherhood feelings in creating political changes and calling for global solidarity by global feminists in cyberspaces. In this study, using the qualitative content analysis method, the struggle of six groups of Iranian Mourning Mothers from 1981 to 2022 was investigated. Research findings show that the digitalization of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran created a new avenue for international solidarity with Iranian mourning mothers who have been resisting state violence. Although the intensity of violence and the number of victims in the Woman Life Freedom movement (2022) were less than the Khavaran event (1981), the current uprising gained the height of international traction across European countries, the United States, and Australia. Moreover, the Woman Life Freedom Movement developed a reflexivity in the body of feminist literature and united Iranian people inside and outside of Iran. Keywords: Iranian Mourning Mothers Movement, Global feminist, Indigenous women, digitalization.
Discipline
Interdisciplinary
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
None