Moral Obligation, Transnational Threat, and the Dynamics of Iranian Diaspora Mobilization

• In Event: Global and Transnational Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 10. Contentious Politics

Abstract

Following the death of Mahsa Amini in government custody in Iran in September 2022, Iranians in diaspora communities around the world mobilized rapidly in support of protesters inside Iran. This response was not only online and symbolic but also publicly visible in major diaspora hubs. This project begins with a puzzle: why do some diaspora actors in the same Iranian transnational social field choose high-risk, high-visibility intervention while others opt for cautious, low-visibility forms of engagement, even when both face real transnational threats? According to research on transnationalism, migrants are embedded in social relationships that span origin and destination contexts rather than just existing in one place or another (Levitt & Glick Schiller, 2004). Furthermore, research on diaspora politics also records "long-distance" ties that can support political initiatives and collective identities beyond territory (Glick Schiller & Fouron, 2001). I argue that moral obligation (X1) and transnational threat capacity (X2) jointly shape the form, visibility, and intensity of diaspora intervention (Y) during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.
I ask: How do transnational moral frameworks and interactive state–diaspora dynamics shape the forms and intensity of diaspora intervention against an authoritarian home regime? In this context, moral frameworks refer to obligation-centered claims about justice and responsibility and interactive dynamics refer to the iterative back-and-forth between diaspora contention and authoritarian countermeasures over time (Levitt & Glick Schiller 2004; Moss 2018). However, this framing treats diaspora activism as neither purely expressive nor purely strategic, it is shaped by moral meaning-making under transnational constraint (Levitt & Glick Schiller 2004; Moss 2018). However, this project makes a theoretical contribution by providing moral obligation as a mechanism that turns homeland events into visible diaspora action, as well as transnational threat capacity as a mechanism that reshapes, rather than simply suppressing the form and visibility of that action. In this concept, the main hypothesis is that higher transnational threat capacity pushes participation towards less visible and more cautious forms, whereas stronger moral obligation increases the likelihood and intensity of diaspora intervention (Moss 2018, Smith et al., 2018).

Author

• Vahid Jadidi, University of Notre Dame