Category: Gender Equality

In an age when undressing someone in an online environment can happen with one click, we need to look for solutions on how to combat a new worrisome trend that is defined as ‘image-based sexual abuse’ (IBSA) by the European Commission. Although the majority of victims are women and teen girls, it does concern men and boys as well (Dodge, 2021). There are some highly publicized cases of IBSA like Taylor Swift’s deep fake nudes spread on social media platform X in early 2024 (Verma and Mark, 2024). These images were most likely created by  AI and Taylor Swift fans started a massive support campaign, yet most of the cases of IBSA are much more mundane than this. 

Mohammad Reza Shah ruled Iran prior to 1979. His main goal was good relations with the United States and westernisation of Iranian society (Iranian Revolution of 1979, 1994). He created opportunities for women to advance in the administration and be involved in decision-making processes. Women could dress as they wished and follow the fashions of the time. The Shah focused on improving levels of higher education and allowed people to behave in a more secular manner. His focus on westernisation sparked opposition and he ignored poorer regions. Anti-western Islamist movements led the revolution in 1979, the establishment of the Islamic Republic and an ultra-conservative religious regime. One of the earliest acts was that women gradually lost their basic rights, with the requirement to be veiled being an early and especially symbolic effect, and that freedom for young people of both sexes to meet became strictly limited, a trend that has continued until now when women are demonstrating for their freedom (Kazmir, 2019).