Walking a Fine Line: Subversive Diasporic Resistance amidst Growing Authoritarianisms.

The rapid expansion of social media in the deepest recesses of our lives have enabled all those who wish to bend others to their vision of a world into the deepest recesses of our lives. Women frequently become the targets and pawns, in the discourse about upholding tradition, or the need to protect them, or the declared wish to free them. Women, from their varied intersectional structural locations, have resisted these efforts, just as some have sought to maintain their power by working with those who aim to control those who might challenge their positions. For marginalized groups in diasporas, including women, the challenges become more complicated. While the immigration literature continues to think about sending and receiving states, treating the receiving countries as discrete units separate from the places of origin, diasporic lives often are shaped by what is happening across several states, and the rapid development of national and global security regimes, which normalize escalated levels of violence. For all those who wish to claim their rights to live lives free from constant threats of restrictions on their freedoms and/or violence, this means contending with authoritarian and vigilante actors and governments of several nations.

In this paper we outline a project where we explored how women in diasporas contend, facilitate or resist religio-nationalisms. The participants spoke about walking a fine line between transnational families, nationalist governments, and groups with money and power to harass or silence people. Our focus is to briefly summarize what the participants said--those are available as podcasts—but to focus particularly on the methodological challenges of using a public-facing medium while trying to be attuned to the risks people face.