Digital Repression, Queer Resistance: A study from Iran and the wider region
In a new four-part podcast series of Boundaries Expression, journalist Jo Glanville talks to human rights advocates about the state of online freedom in the Islamic Republic of Iran, how it reflects on the rest of the region and the future for freedom of expression. More than two years since the Woman Life Freedom protests, the series investigates the impact of the crackdown, the restrictions on digital freedom of expression, and the fight for justice and accountability.
Episode 1: Threats and solutions
Jo Glanville meets Afsaneh Rigot a former ARTICLE19 researcher and now founder of De|Center and author of ARTICLE 19 and De|Center’’s groundbreaking report Queer Resistance to Digital Oppression in the Middle East and North Africa. Joined by Mahsa Alimardani, Senior Programme Officer for Middle East and North Africa at ARTICLE19, we discuss thefive years of extensive research, interviews and surveys that resulted in this report. The work was co-led by a large array of LGBTQ experts and activists from the region living through the experiences documented in the reports. We delve into the publication’s in-depth insight into the threats to digital expression with far-reaching recommendations that are already making a difference for protecting a marginalised community on the front line. The podcast highlights how Iran targets the queer community online through multiple methods of repression and discusses solutions for protecting the community’s privacy and communications.
Jo Glanville is a journalist and audio producer. She regularly produces and presents documentaries for the BBC. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times and London Review of Books, among other publications. She was an award-winning editor of Index on Censorship and a former director of English PEN. She is editor of Looking for an Enemy: eight essays on antisemitism (Short Books/WW Norton) and Qissat: short stories by Palestinian women (Telegram/Saqi).
Queer Resistance to Digital Oppression in the Middle East and North Africa
In groundbreaking new research, over 5,000 LGBTQI+ people in 8 countries across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) tell ARTICLE 19 how police are weaponising dating, messaging, and social media apps to persecute them – and what tech companies can do to keep them safe.
People are taking risky measures to keep themselves, their friends, and their loved ones safe. But the onus should not fall on individuals. Tech companies have human rights responsibilities to their users, and they urgently need to do more to meet them.
Some companies have introduced security features as a result of our earlier work, including Grindr, WhatsApp, and Signal. Nearly half (49%) of our survey respondents said these are the safety features they use the most – and, for some, they were the difference between being imprisoned and being released. These findings and methods used are a ray of hope in a climate of techno-authoritarian repression that there are ways we can challenge these harms.
This podcast is part of Boundaries of Expression, a series of interventions from ARTICLE 19. Developed by guest editors, Boundaries of Expression is designed as a space for those working on freedom of expression to take a look at some of the most controversial and divisive issues of our time.