In a society where people live a dualistic life between the physical world and the World Wide Web. It would stand that the realms of public and private life can be stratified through digital culture. In Iran, the realm of social media affords people of almost all backgrounds equal access to basic civil liberties that they do not have inherent access to under the rule of law. According to a 2023 report by Amnesty International, “Women and girls, LGBTI people, and ethnic and religious minorities were subjected to systemic discrimination and violence.” [1] Minority groups who have been historically disenfranchised through traditional media such as state-regulated Television programming are now capable of reaching a wide, if not wider, audience on the internet. As such, the internet’s capacity to circumvent the regime's enforcement of various “moral” and security regulations poses a massive threat to their active oppression. This threat is notable when considering the Iranian government's efforts to restrict and censor social media and communication applications specifically. Noted in the 2023 report by Amnesty International, “Authorities censored media, jammed satellite television channels, and continued to block and filter mobile apps and social media platforms, including Facebook, Google Play, Instagram, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, X, and YouTube [...] Internet and mobile phone networks were disrupted during and ahead of expected [Women, Life, Freedom] protests.” [1] The regime understands the threat that activists pose through their organization online.

One of the unique relationships between a minority group of Iranians and digital space exists within the LGBTQ+ community. Queer Iranians have been pushed to the farthest corners of Iranian society, fewer identities are as ubiquitously and explicitly repressed under the Regime as gender nonconformity and homosexuality. “LGBTQ+ Iranians are therefore legally oppressed, making it impossible to organize resistance. Furthermore, the social stigma faced by the community exacerbates the difficulties they face. President Ahmadinejad declared there were no gays in Iran in 2007. The cultural and social erasure of the Iranian LGBTQ+ community, as well as legal repression, contributes to their difficulties in protesting their marginal status.” (Norbury 2024) Although the regime makes continuous efforts to police the online activities of Iranian citizens, peripheral minority groups such as LGBTQIA Iranians, like a young Nika Shahkarami, turn to the internet to create digital spaces for their community. The work of Queer Iranian activists had, until the WLF movement, been relegated to private acts of resistance in covert relationships and to online chat spaces and message boards. The importance of symbols to LGBTQ pride within oppressive countries is important to note creating a level of security between in-group and out-group in life-or-death situations. “Arsham Parsi formed a small LGBT group online called Rangin Kaman (Rainbow Group) in 2001. As a gay Iranian who felt alone, he sought to meet others online and form a community of alike people” [2] 

The meaning of the rainbow as a symbol for the queer community as a call to action became apparent after the death of Kian Pirfalak, a 10-year-old boy who was shot during the WLF protests by undercover agents. A video circulated of Kian posthumously wherein he said “In the name of the god of rainbows” before beginning to demonstrate his assignment for a school science project. Queer Iranians co-opted this video and Kian's phrasing, they saw this child's innocence and curiosity as a reflection of what their future society could be capable of. Kian becomes a beacon for Iran's potential for a more accepting and radical future.

"In the name of the God of the rainbow. I've made this boat for the Jabir ibn Hayyan [science] fair. I want to try it for the first time to see if it works or not. And we conclude that this works. Our experiment was concluded successfully!" #Iran #IranProtests2022 #KianPirfalak https://t.co/SLsKltCpoY

— Reza H. Akbari (@rezahakbari) November 17, 2022