Blind number: 8202

I chose to do my self-reflection regarding an idea addressed in the first reading I did in

this class, Blindsided by the Avatar: White Saviours out of Hollywood and in Education. I chose
this reading as, while completing my undergraduate degree, I learned about, discussed and
researched the idea of white saviours repeatedly. This led to my further understanding of what
exactly a white saviour is, as well as why it is not as beneficial of a role as it may sound.

While researching this subject in the past, I came across instances and examples of white
saviours in relation to the Middle East, which sparked my interest on the subject further, being
that I was born in the Middle East, specifically in Iran. Consequently, I have grown up seeing
demonstrations of the white saviour complex in Western media and not really understanding how
detrimental the ideas and dialogue from white saviours actually was towards people of colour.

With this reading awakening previous ideas and concepts in my mind, as I was reading, I
couldn’t help but think about the people of Iran and the current state of the country. As I
continued to read and reached the part where the author differentiates between a white saviour
and a white ally, I began to reflect on some of the things that I have been seeing on social media
recently.

As the feminist movement for human rights in Iran progresses, much of the Iranian
diaspora find ourselves helpless. However, instead of sitting back and watching the youth of our
homeland continue to suffer, be brutally murdered and beg and cry for help and for change, the
diaspora, with the help of some Iranian citizens, were able to give this movement the media
exposure that it needed. In an extremely short amount of time, many of the popular social media
websites were flooded with posts regarding the injustices women have to face on a daily basis
living under Iran’s mandatory hijab laws.

While this movement and its exposure within Western media continued to grow, the rise
of the white saviour came with it. Instead of assisting in the amplification of Iranian voices and
requests, I came across many white people attempting to “spread awareness” regarding the
situation, yet doing so in a way which completing changed the narrative of how this movement
came to be in the first place. While the movement had been forming into a revolution against the
dictatorship of the Islamic Republic, currently governing Iran, the narrative was quickly turned
into one with an underlying tone of Islamophobia.

This is where the white saviour tends to step in and, contextually, play the biggest role.
When Islam is in any shape or form involved in a situation which gains this extent of media
attention, the white saviour steps in and plays a major “feminist” role. They state that the women
involved, women who wear hijabs, are being oppressed against their will and the West must
stand up and help them. This was the situation in France, in Quebec and constantly has been the
case in Middle Eastern countries.

Although the uprising in Iran did begin as a reaction to the mandatory hijab laws, that is
not the only thing the people of Iran are protesting, nor should that be the issue that the spotlight
is on. However, due to the white saviour, the narrative has been altered and focus has been
shifted to the hijab as Western discourse surrounding the hijab tends to be similar to typical
white saviour discourse as found in our readings. The ethnocentric, Eurocentric way of thinking
that the white saviour adopts is one which renders people of colour not only incapable of helping
themselves, but also in need of assimilation to Eurocentric norms.

While the additional exposure on Iranian issues is extremely appreciated, a white ally
approach is significantly more beneficial to Iranian people as opposed to the white saviour
mentality. As we’ve seen in the past, the white saviour has took it upon themselves to insert
themselves into situations wherein they did more harm than good, such as Iraq and Afghanistan
and spreading misinformation about the root of this Iranian revolution could add Iran to that list
as well.

All in all, the topic of the white saviour has, in the recent years, been something that I
have been very aware of, as performative activism becomes extremely prominent when new
social issues reach Western media. However, I have never been able to relate to or personally
understand the detriment which comes with the white saviour complex until I began to see how
easily the narrative was changed due to white saviour expressions, or how easily the voices and
attention on Iranian people addressing these same issues was taken away and the space the
Iranian people had, taken over, by a white saviour.

It is extremely disheartening to see the narrative of who you are as a person be altered by
someone who is unaware of the full, truthful story, just because they are privileged enough to be
white and share “their” story. I think that this sentiment is especially true with regards to
Indigenous people in Canada, as history has been rewritten and taught in our schools from the
white saviour perspective for centuries.