IRANIAN WOMEN’S RESISTANCE AGAINST GENDER BASED DIGITAL AUTHORITARIANISM: AN ANALYSIS THROUGH FEMINIST IR THEORY AND INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The rise of technological advancements in the 21st century has transformed the structure of state power across the globe. The adoption of unethical digital practices by the state to control and monitor the activities of its citizens especially in times of uprisings against the state through frequent internet shutdowns, censorships, surveillance, etc. has outpaced the legal safeguards available for protection against human rights violations. Scholars have increasingly defined this issue as “Digital authoritarianism”. Iran is one such example, countering both dissent and choices of their citizens, particularly Women by imposing recurring internet shutdowns, expanded facial recognition systems and surveillance cameras to enforce compulsory veiling laws. This issue has advanced the interests of authoritarian states like Iran to subvert the question of human rights and gender equality by disrupting the chain of mass mobilisation in the revolutionary movements against the state. Despite the collective efforts of the world this issue remains unresolved so far, indicating the inefficiency of legal frameworks. This paper analyses the resistance of women of Iran against the issue of gender inequality and the practices of gender based digital authoritarianism by the Iranian state through the lens of Feminist IR theory, focusing on how state surveillance technologies are systematically deployed to discipline, monitor, and control women’s bodies, mobility, and political expression. Also, analysing how resistance can be effective for women in such cases to ensure the enforcement of human Rights in authoritarian states. Further, this paper aims to address the failure of International legal framework in protecting the basic human rights of the citizens of authoritarian states, particularly of Iran, even in today's age of globalisation and cosmopolitanism and examines the role of gender based digital authoritarianism in repressing the voice of women in Iran as a form of Technology-facilitated gender based violence (TFGBV). Thus, leading to the suppression of gender rights in the state and making digital authoritarianism an effective tool for gender repression. Therefore, the paper argues the need for reformation and effective regulation in the realm of International humanitarian law and international legal framework respectively, keeping in focus the feminist perspectives towards this issue.