Politics of Rightful Killing

In the early 2000s mainstream international news outlets celebrated the growth of Weblogistan-the online and real-life transnational network of Iranian bloggers-and depicted it as a liberatory site that gave voice to Iranians. As Sima Shakhsari argues in <i>Politics of Rightful Killing</i> the common assumptions of Weblogistan as a site of civil society consensus and resistance to state oppression belie its deep internal conflicts. While Weblogistan was an effective venue for some Iranians to practice democracy it served as a valuable site for the United States to surveil bloggers and express anti-Iranian sentiment and policies. At the same time bloggers used the network to self-police and enforce gender and sexuality norms based on Western liberal values in ways that unwittingly undermined Weblogistan's claims of democratic participation. In this way Weblogistan became a site of cybergovernmentality where biopolitical security regimes disciplined and regulated populations. Analyzing online and off-line ethnography Shakhsari provides an account of digital citizenship that raises questions about the internet's relationship to political engagement militarism and democracy.