The Power of Unwanted Presence

Abstract

Presenting human bodies in public space against the will of the state is a well-known strategy to protest. Indeed the presence of the body as a materiality bears meaning. Furthermore if the body is doing an act for the eyes of the spectator it has an explanation therefore a performance happens. As Judith Butler claims the body is a manner of doing, dramatizing and reproducing a historical situation. Meanwhile it is subjectivated by culture, power structures and its social environment. In a public protest performing bodies(body) get connected to each other and form a resistant performativity. This enables the subject to vitalize possibilities for social transformation and objection with dominating power structures. However there are groups of humans who are not eligible to appear as subjects. When the subject is defined by elimination then performance is a kind of resistance that reclaims agency and power. Since the Islāmization of Iran revolution(1979), Iranian women have managed to protest in four particular mass gatherings to resist socio-political oppression related to their gender and compulsory hijab. The very first was A five-day protest march starting on March 8, 1979 to prevent legalization of compulsory hijab. The second one was a peaceful gathering of women's rights defenders in June 2006 in Tehran’s central business district that ended with violent objection from the state and the third is a solo performance of an Iranian woman known as the Girl of Enghelab Street on 27 December 2017. Aesthetics of these Performances vary according to different strategic and artistic choices. This Article tries to define and explain the surrounding environment and socio-political basis which lead to formation of these different constructions. It studies the performative strategies of these public gatherings of powerful subjects with a common object: social equality through a nonviolence subversive performance. It is essential to mention that by the time of this article's publication, the very last nationwide uprising against compulsory Hijab with the Manifest “Woman, Life, Freedom” is ongoing in Iran. It is ignited by the brutal murder of Jina 'Mahsa' Amini while in the custody of the moral police on 16th September 2022. This article has been submitted by May 2021, hence these developments have not been considered.