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"Discredited": Diaspora Iranians and the Paradox of Public Shaming
Abstract
“Discredited.” The word is wielded as a statement of fact and a forgone conclusion. In recent years, countless Iranian academics, journalists, activists, and public figures have found themselves subjected to this label in the court of public opinion, long known for its ruthless denial of due process to the targets of coordinated harassment and public shaming campaigns. As the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement enters its sixth month, the deep tensions within the North American Iranian Diaspora (NAID) continue to worsen as “sharm-sari,” or public shaming, emerges as a tactic of preference for some diaspora Iranians who feel frustrated by what they perceive to be a lack of accountability for the well-documented crimes of the Islamic Republic. The trend has taken hold across different domains, including social media, group messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp, and in the public domain from restaurants to airports to university campuses. Agents of sharm-sari pursue their targets with dogged determination, following them with their smart phones recording the encounter, in order to later post these on social media channels to boast about the triumph of their efforts to ostracize and isolate those who they believe are overt or covert agents of the government of Iran or anyone connected with them. This paper discusses the fractures in the NAID in the context of the current anti-government uprising in Iran and explores the use, consequences, and implications of the coordinated campaigns of public shaming for North American diaspora Iranians. The paper argues that sharm-sari is both logically incoherent and counterproductive to the movement's own goals and ultimately undermines diaspora opposition groups aiming to weaken the Islamic Republic.
Discipline
Geography
International Relations/Affairs
Political Science
Sociology
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
None