The Quagmire of Ideologies

In this article, we study the virtual life-world of Iranian Kurds on Facebook. The research method is critical virtual ethnography. Data included in-depth online and face-to-face interviews, participatory observation, non-participatory observation, and Facebook documents. The sampling method was purposive. To analyze, we used the Constructivist grounded theory method. Findings show that Facebook provides a space in which to display Kurdish identity and semantic symbols as a field producing common cultural patterns amongst Kurds. These common cultural patterns and meanings on Facebook have become ideological. We see the dominance of several major ideologies that interpret “self” and “other” based on their interpretation of Kurdish identity, symbols, and meanings. Any individual or group that does not fit into this interpretation is excluded from this Kurdish virtual society. As an important ideology, Kurdish nationalism assumes that the Kurds had a glorious ethnic history in the past which is stolen by the "other, " paving the way for oppressing the Kurds until now. Different Kurdish ideologies on Facebook believe that the “other” must be destroyed to break this oppression chain. Each ideology interprets this “other” differently. We show how Kurdish Facebook has become a virtual colonial land where subjects are colonized in different ways.