Resisting silence

moments of empowerment in Iranian women’s blogs

Authors

  • Maryam Paknahad Jaborooty Hannam Univeristy, South Korea
  • Paul Baker Lancaster University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.22212

Keywords:

blogs, Iran, censorship, women, relationships

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.

Author Biographies

  • Maryam Paknahad Jaborooty, Hannam Univeristy, South Korea

    Maryam Paknahad Jaborooty is an assistant professor of English at Hannam University, South Korea. Her research interests include online communication, as well as the intersection between language and desire, gender and sexual identity.

  • Paul Baker, Lancaster University

    Paul Baker is professor of English language at Lancaster University. His research involves applications of corpus linguistics, and his recent books include Using Corpora to Analyze Gender (2014), Discourse Analysis and Media Attitudes (2013) and Sociolinguistics and Corpus Linguistics (2010). He is the commissioning editor of the journal Corpora.

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Published

2017-03-28

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Jaborooty, M. P., & Baker, P. (2017). Resisting silence: moments of empowerment in Iranian women’s blogs. Gender and Language, 11(1), 77-99. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.22212