The response to a senior Iranian cleric's recent comments that women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes has been seismic -- and Duke film, literature and women's studies professor Negar Mottahedeh has been at the epicenter of a blogosphere reaction to the issue.
Last week, Indiana student and blogger Jen McCreight proposed on her blog and Facebook that women test the cleric's theory by dressing as immodestly as they feel comfortable on Monday, April 26. McCreight would then measure any resulting spike in tectonic activity. Her proposed virtual protest, dubbed "Boobquake," yielded an overwhelming response, including from Mottahedeh and Golbarg Bashi, an Iranian studies professor at Rutgers University.
Mottahedeh and Bashi proposed "Brainquake," encouraging women to show off their "resumes, CVs, honors, prizes, accomplishments" through new media including Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook, because the Islamic Republic of Iran is "afraid of women's abilities to push for change."
Ms. Magazine, Newsweek, and NPR, among other blogs and publications, covered the competing protests.
"Brainquake was a fantastic celebration of the lives and accomplishments of women everywhere," Mottahedeh wrote on her blog, negarpontifiles.blogspot.com. "I was filled with feelings of awe and total humility at the magnitude of our collective capacity to transform the world."
Mottahedeh is an avid user of social media both in and out of the classroom. When demonstrators protested alleged vote fraud in last summer's Iranian presidential elections in Tehran, she monitored and commented on the use of social media in the demonstrations. Last spring Mottahedeh's "Introduction to Film Studies" class hosted a Twitter Film Festival ; in 2003, she helped organize the "Reel Evil" film festival at Duke, which featured movies produced in countries whom President Bush identified as the "Axis of Evil."