Online International Journal of Arts and Humanities

ISSN 2277-0852; Volume 2 Issue 8, Pages 198-207; October 2013

©2013 Online Research Journals

Available Online at https://onlineresearchjournals.org/IJAH

Research Article

 

Scrabble the Face of Your Opponent: Iranian Blogger's Endeavour to Discursively Undermine Ahmadi Nejad's legitimacy   *Ehsan Shahghasemi1 and Bijan Tafazzoli2   1PhD Candidate at the Department of Communication, University of Tehran and a member of the International Academy for Intercultural Research. 2Master of Science in International Relations, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.   *Corresponding Author‘s E-mail: ehsanshaghasemi@yahoo.com.   Received 5 September, 2013 Accepted 16 October, 2013

Since Ahmadi Nejad’s first election in 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad has never been darling of the Iranian middle class. This problem escalated after the contested June 2009 election which followed by a cross country turmoil. Facing a massive crackdown, the opposition movement tried to challenge Ahmadi Nejad discursively on the Internet. One of the approaches opposition bloggers adopted was to scorn Ahmadi Nejad’s appearance. Putting the issue in the broader arena of the Iranian culture in which the visual appearance of the nobility has always been a crucial criterion to lead Ahmadi Nejad to the throne, this study explores the endeavors by the Iranian bloggers to put Ahmadi Nejad's physical –and particularly facial- features to the forefront and criticize him as an inept person to stay incumbent. Base on the fact that in the ancient Iran a prince with any kind of scars on his face was delegitimized to become king, the researchers call this endeavor “scrabbling” the face of the opponent. The researcher’s qualitative analysis have shown that Iranian bloggers have managed to “scrabble” the Face of Ahmadi Nejad in many different ways and in response, his proponents who are aware of damage of this discursive attack within the Iranian context, tried to “heal” Ahmadi Nejad’s face.   Key words: Ahmadi nejad, visual culture, June 2009 election, Iran, Iranian bloggers.

Recommended Citation

Shahghasemi E and Tafazzoli B. Scrabble the Face of Your Opponent: Iranian Blogger's Endeavour to Discursively Undermine Ahmadi Nejad's legitimacy. Online Int J Arts Human, 2013; 2(8): 198-207.