Shakhsari: Sima Shakhsari unmasks the role that hegemonic and heteronormative imaginations play in shaping the neoliberal tolerance policies that have become popularized through virtual media with regards to Iranian Queers living within and beyond the nation’s borders.

Reading this article brings up my personal apprehension with the validity given to campaigns for equality based on tolerance as opposed to acceptance. Sima Shakhsari’s piece on the apparent shift from denial of the existence of the Iranian Queer community to the sudden “chic” and tolerance of queerness exposes the utility behind the queer aesthetic in advancing the nation-state’s flawed reputation as an antiquated and repressive place. As spelled out in Shakhsari’s article, fighting for women and gay rights is commonly seen as a sign of democracy, modernity, and compassionate civility. Using cyberspace as a medium to promote this seemingly tolerant policy allows for supposed opposition groups to advocate for gay rights on solely a topical level. If I were a blogger, re-posting an article about the “gay-hangings” in Iran without positing my own commentary on the heteronormative discourses that support a homophobic atmosphere would be a convenient way for me to touch on the issue of gay rights with a metaphorical 10-foot pole, i.e.from a safe distance.

It is unsettling to find that cyberspace, a virtual world that offers the opportunity for us to challenge and reassess the ways of the “real world,” can be manipulated to replicate the same power dynamics that exist in reality. Though the internet has offered many marginalized minorities a safe-space to empower themselves and build community, this article has helped me realize the way in which this medium can simultaneously be used to exploit these same populations. Shakhsasri illustrates how the heteronormative imagination that dominates our “real world” can ultimately saturate the borderless territory of the world wide web, disciplining and denouncing the humanity of the very populations that seek liberation.