Tag Archives: Iran

Shift From Exile to Diaspora

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Sima Shakhsari’s essay on how the war on terror increased the hyper visibility of queer Iranians via cyberspace delved into a lot of complex issues surrounding Iran and the country’s attitude towards homosexuality.  What I found most interesting about the piece was the exploration of the shift from exile to diaspora.  The juxtaposition of a backwards and traditional Iran and the fast paced, innovative Internet provided by Shakhsari helps us to understand the shift in depth.  As a result of the war on terror, the media was constantly covering Iran and information on Iranian queers became more visible.  This in turn gave them a stronger international presence and identity which before that point was denied as seen in instances like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University where he declared “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country”.

Before the war on terror, this mentality of homosexuality as a non-existent factor within Iranian culture figuratively stripped Iranian queers of their Iranian identity not only within Iran but outside of Iran as well.  For example, although many queer Iranians living outside of Iran consider themselves exiles, “the Iranian exilic imaginations have incessantly excluded Iranian queers” (Shakhsari).  This is extremely important to note because Iran didn’t even fully acknowledge individuals of Iranian descent that identified as queer in their most negative image – exile.  Instead, Iranian culture placed “queer” in the image of Western civilization and attributes the queering of Iranian individuals as perversion from the West.

Identifying as a queer individual automatically makes an issue of sexual orientation political as we see in Arsham Parsi’s case.  “This situation is both a burden and a tremendous personal responsibility for me…I fully devote my labors toward achieving for myself and my fellow citizens in Iran the treasured dream and desire of so many millions around the globe…freedom.” (19, Shakhsari)  This sentiment coupled with the war on terror and the innovation of technology ultimately led to an increase in engagement, communication, and support for Iranian queers located outside of Iran – ultimately ushering in the shift from exile to diaspora.

Capitalizing on Iranian Queers

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In “From Homoerotics of Exile to Homopolitics of Diaspora”, Sima Shakhsari discusses the ways in which organizations, governments, and diasporic Iranian queers have used the political position of Iranian queers as a popular way of defending their interventions.

In the words of of Shakhsari, supporting and even celebrating the rights of queers in Iran has become “chic” with the widespread use of the Internet. The media and other organizations focus on Iranian queers as a way of justifying intervention, criticism, and the liberating agenda of Iran. Furthermore, those living in the Iranian diaspora (the world wide community of exiled Iranians and their family) have used the issue of Iranian queers to generate funding and interest in their agendas. However, Shakhsari highlights that only certain kinds of queers appear in the celebratory narratives of Iranian queers.

Que(e)rying Queer Discourse

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Taylor: Contemporary artists outside of the West have used a variety of media to grapple with the oppressions they face in a post-colonial context.

Shakhsari: Despite the fact that the new inclusion and the visibility of the Iranian queer in cyberspace is positive, one must be extremely wary of the nature of this “acceptance” and critique the hegemonic and homonationalist discourses to which this “tolerance” adheres.

Shakhsari deftly tackles the subject of the Iranian queer, suddenly made hypervisible through the powers of cyberspace. Naturally, queer visibility and a move towards the acceptance and even celebration of queer people is a positive thing… But is it so thoroughly positive? Much of the Iranian diaspora, it seems, embraces a pseudo-inclusive mind-set, a bizarre sort of homophobic non-homophobia that seems all too familiar for queers anywhere. It’s the sort of irritating “I’m fine with gays, as long as they don’t hit on me” mentality, the “not in my backyard” thinking that feigns acceptance and really only whitewashes the homophobia just beneath the surface. Queerness, like “diaspora”, has become chic in the blogosphere, a trendy way of positioning yourself against the Iranian state, now with queers added! More disturbing than this “add queers and stir” method that Shakhsari identifies, in my mind, is the homonationalist discourse that dominates the queer Iranian blogosphere. While queer activists like Parsi are instrumental and have certainly done a lot for gay and lesbian Iranians, they have also left many of their queer siblings behind. When queer became chic, only the homonormative became chic, only certain Iranian queers were deemed “representable subjects” in this strategic inclusion. Much like the queer community in a national or even international perspective, it is the most privileged or most “normative” members of the community who are made visible, who are accepted, who are given agency. As Fraser has shown us (us here being ARTH/AFR 316, of course!), we must critique even the structures that give us (limited) power, we occasionally have to bite the proverbial hand that feeds if we wish to seek more satisfying sustenance later on. Shakhsari understands this, and chooses not to comply with homonormative and homonationalist discourses, instead remaining skeptical and attempting to queer the dominant queer discourse in a quest for an even better future.

Visibility through Cyberspace

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Summary: In “From Homoerotics of Exile to Homopolitics of Diaspora,” Sima Shakhsari adequately argues that while cyberspace creates hypervisibility through mobilizations induced by Internet communication, it also provides political and entrepreneurial opportunities for Iranian diasporic queers.

Cyberspace provides visibility to the queer Iranian community, both within Iran and in the Iranian diaspora, while constructing a “perverted” identity of the West and an innocent identity of Iran within the Iranian exilic discourse. This reference to the West as being perverted is interesting because it places blame on the West for exposing Iranian queers to homosexuality, instead of accepting homosexuality as a natural identity. I was pleased at the fact that attitudes towards queer Iranians in exile shifted away from this discourse due to the introduction and expansion of cyberspace, which offers Iranian queers a safe, legitimate space to participate in dialogue and reach support from members abroad. However, I wonder how Iranian immigrants who do not have access to the internet are able to engage in conversation and receive information related to their identifiable community?

Also, similar to the ability of photographs to negotiate identity and produce images to promote acceptance, the internet possesses the power to do the same as a medium that has the capacity to reach a broad audience. I would assume that Internet blogs, videos, and articles are not as easy of targets to censorship as print media and publications. Is this true? If not, how are queer Iranians that are living in Iran able to interact with the queer diasporic Iranians? What are the censorship penalties (in Iran) of participating in internet conversation about queer identity?