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| Sina Mirzaei, political scientist |
In an interview with Voice of America, political scientist and activist Sina Mirzaei discussed the importance of principles and ethical rules in social movements, as well as the necessary mechanisms to implement these rules.
“Social movements, in fact, emerge from a grievance, a discontent. Naturally, this grievance cannot be addressed through legal means, through the ways outlined by the ruling power, so they emerge against that power with a complaint. How social movements frame this grievance and how they set their principles around it is very important. Social movements create a narrative based on this framework, and that narrative, in turn, shapes the principles and ethical norms based on theory and the framework,” said the political scientist.
Mirzaei believes that the discourse of social movements should be formed in line with the grievance and protest they are raising.
“For example, the norms and ethical framework of a social movement that complains about racism, chauvinism, central politics, colonialism, or a patriarchal system are shaped based on the complaints they are raising,” he added.
The political scientist pointed out that there are significant differences between the mechanisms for implementing ethical rules and principles in social movements and political parties formed in multi-party systems.
“Social movements, of course, do not act like a party to preserve this ethical framework. A party has an internal charter. A party offers salaries and perhaps privileges. Naturally, it can expel and punish a member who deviates from these norms and principles at any time. This is different for social movements. Especially in the era of social media, it is not easy to punish someone who goes against the principles. You can't expel them from the movement because they would go to social media, act independently, and present themselves as a leader or as a representative of the movement... Therefore, the establishment of these ethical norms depends, I believe, on the narrative and discourse. How closely is the adherence to that narrative, and how well is that grievance framed? In other words, a social movement must not have a fragmented and paradoxical narrative,” he said.
Sina Mirzaei stressed that social movements that fail to remain true to their principles and norms may disintegrate, citing historical examples.
“We have seen examples throughout history of how some social movements establish their ethical rules with their own mechanisms, and how others fail to do so and disappear. The reason for the disintegration of many social movements is their emergence with a fragmented discourse. They believe that in order to continue the movement, they must rely on everyone. In the 2022 protests in Iran, there was this understanding that the center should unite with the periphery, and the marginalized groups should unite with the patriarchal structure they oppose. What was the result? There was such a fragmentation that because no framework was created, the principles were not clear. The discourse and roadmap were not clear—who wants what? Fragmentation leads to this: for example, an autocratic state comes in and uses the disarray of a movement that is seen as illegal in its eyes to divide it into two, then into many pieces, and tries to pit them against each other,” the political activist added.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Sina Mirzayi: Yola çıxarkən müəyyənləşdirdiyi prinsipləri unudan ictimai hərəkatlar dağıla bilər