RCL Post 2

@yourfavefeminist

Replying to @aydamoeiiin #greenscreen the women of Iran are an inspiration. We stand with our Iranian sisters in their fight for freedom 🇮🇷 #iran #womenlifefreedom #mahsaamini #feminist #protest #labourparispaloma

♬ labour – Paris Paloma

The artifact I’ve selected this week is a Tik-tok describing the ongoing protest efforts of women in Iran. The video was created by a feminist account (@yourfavfeminist) in support of Iranian women. Reaching over 140,000 viewers, the video is intended to remind people that the struggle for Iranian women is ongoing, and far from over. New cycles move on quickly, mercilessly at times, and the video seeks to keep people thinking about the issue, and thinking about ways they can help.

Following the death of young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini after an altercation with Iran’s morality police in September 2022, there was an immediate outpouring of anger, grief, and desperation for change. Amini’s death quickly gained attention as the news went viral on social media and sparked protests around the world. This video, created in March of this year, responds not directly to that exigence, but rather to the need to keep women’s rights protests in Iran in the news. The artifact represents the power of social media in supporting social justice movements.

This video, and many others about the movement, target the commonplace idea that we’re stronger together. They urge viewers around the world to show their support for Iran’s women. The goal is simple: show the women of Iran that they aren’t alone, their efforts are being seen, and the world is supporting them. We can’t let acts of oppression and injustice go unnoticed. To do that would be to ignore our civic duty. This video means different things to different groups. To protestors in Iran, it means the world is still watching, and still supporting them. To people around the world, it means we have a civic duty to reject injustice and support those who are fighting for their rights.