The Digital Uprising: Subaltern Voices Reshaping Power in West Asia

Abstract

The rise of digital media has significantly transformed the political landscape of West Asia, opening new avenues for dissent, resistance, and empowerment. This study explores how subaltern voices, those historically marginalized by patriarchal, political, and colonial systems, use digital platforms to express identity, mobilize collective action, and challenge established power structures. Through a qualitative analysis of key movements, including the Arab Spring, Women2Drive, My Stealthy Freedom, and Palestinian online activism, the study investigates the complex and transformative role of digital media in political mobilization. The findings reveal that digital platforms have enhanced the visibility of marginalized communities, enabling decentralized and transnational forms of activism that redefine traditional notions of political participation. Nevertheless, these benefits are accompanied by ongoing structural inequalities, state surveillance, algorithmic bias, and digital repression, which often reinforce subalternity in new forms.

The study concludes that the “digital uprising” in West Asia represents not merely technological progress but a profound reconfiguration of voice and power where the subaltern negotiates agency within shifting boundaries of control, visibility, and resistance.