Self
photography is becoming more popular in Iran and whilst some relish
the opportunity of being seen on the Internet, others worry this
contributes to the culture of narcissism.
Since
the average Iranian must pay at least two monthly wages to acquire a
smart phone, the phenomenon is limited mostly to middle and
upper-class youths, who have taken to the fashion.
Edit
software like Photoshop is cheap and popular in Iran due to an
absence of copyright laws and many Iranians alter their selfies
before they post them online. While it is difficult to count the
exact number of selfies on Iranian social networks, but users say
they make the majority of postings on Instagram. According to
cafebazaar, an alternative platform that 85% Iranians use to download
apps, the social app has over one million users in Iran, while an
estimated 82% of these Instagram users are men, the users in this
article said women post more selfies than men.
My
Stealthy Freedom Facebook page invites Iranian women to share their
views on hijab and this controversy illustrates the attitudes of
these women as well as the inflexibility of the Islamic regime.
When
the page attracted nearly half a million likes and hundreds of
hijab-free selfies, Iran's government media started a campaign
against the page's founder Masih Alinejad in London and called her a
whore and claimed that she was drugged and gang-raped in front
of her son. The fear of losing cultural control over Iran's
population especially women and youth, is also behind an effort by
the country's hardline political spheres to block Instagram, which a
27 May court order added to the government list of banned web sites.
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