This is a commentary on Chowra Makaremi’s (2025) "Insurrections in Iran: an off-site ethnography", which examines the Woman, Life, Freedom uprisings in Iran using social media methods. I discuss Makaremi‘s methodology of off-site ethnography and emphasize the inseparability of online and offline spaces. I show how Makaremi’s work underscores the role of social media in resistance movements, and I call for reflexive, contextualized social media research that accounts for power structures.

Writing in June 2025, I reflect on Chowra Makaremi’s proposal of “off-site ethnography” amid global instability and shifting geopolitics. Through distance, Makaremi shows how research can capture what lies beyond direct observation, inspiring a reflection on presumed norms around fieldwork, mobility, and academic research. Her approach resonates with diasporic experiences, crises of access, and the urgency of safeguarding counter-memories in uncertain times.

The text explores the challenges and methods of research in repressive contexts, through the case of the Woman, Life, Freedom uprisings in Iran. Drawing on a study of post-revolutionary Iran, it discusses the production of empirical knowledge without direct presence, through digital tools and archival practices. Examining images, discourses and acts of revolt, such as unveiling, it analyzes a radical shift in collective values, affects, belongings and the relations between state and society.