Using Social Media to Recruit Seldom-Heard Groups: Reaching Women and Girls with Experience of Violence in Iran

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is a very strong paper and a significant contribution to the literature on violence against women.  As the authors point out, there is particularly little information from certain countries such as Iran. 

A weakness that should be addressed is the somewhat scant description of how the survey questions were developed.  There is a lot of research on the effectiveness (and limitations) of the violence questions used in Demographic and Health Surveys and the WHO surveys on domestic violence.  The article includes a brief mention that "the established measurement scales, rooted in global North framings, may be unsuitable for the Iranian context."  This is very true, but the pivotal word here is "may".  Maybe the established definitions of sub-categories of violence and establishes scales are relevant, and maybe they aren't... they have in any case been developed through testing in many highly diverse geographic and cultural contexts.  The authors should describe more if and how they considered questions from globally established survey tools when designing their survey, and a more specific identification of why these were deemed irrelevant.  The design of survey questions determines everything else in the study, and this detail needs further discussion.  

In the discussion section, the reader learns that the survey was offered through a specific channel focused on domestic violence.  The limitations of this are acknowledged.  Indeed it biases both the survey participation dynamics and the responses significantly.  Line 440 notes that "findings may lack generalisability"... Removal of the word "may" is recommended.  There is no question about it.  On the basis of the methodological limitations the findings cannot in any way be generalised (period).  The conclusions about the need for more attention, legal support and other services for women experiencing violence are surely well-warranted, but in the context of these methodological limitations, the results point to the need for population-based surveys from which policies, legal reforms and support programs can be designed.   

Instagram is typically more used on mobile phone platforms than as a desktop app.  It would also be helpful to have more context in the paper's background section on women's mobile phone ownership (and wealth categories and age categories of women's mobile phone ownership).  Or, if such information does not exist in-country, then some indications via regional statistics could be helpful. 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer#1

Thank you for taking the time to review our manuscript and for your positive feedback on our paper. We greatly appreciate your recognition of the contribution it makes to the literature on violence against women. Please check our response in attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The key question is gender violence and its main value is the first research I have reden on this topic in Iran. The range of the expresión of violence against women and girl is very wide which gives a additional value to the research. It is true that maybe could be improved including information up todays or some other countries if it is possible. They need to continue this kind of research and increase the selection of the population. Finally figures could be improved with deep data analysis but the main value continue being to work on this topic in a country as Iran. Hope this time you have comments explaining enough how to improve. They can also explain better why the country is a patriarcal organization and the link with gender based violence. Thanks

Author Response

Response to Reviewer# 2

Comments: The key question is gender violence and its main value is the first research I have read on this topic in Iran. The range of the expression of violence against women and girl is very wide which gives an additional value to the research. It is true that maybe could be improved including information up to days or some other countries if it is possible. They need to continue this kind of research and increase the selection of the population. Finally figures could be improved with deep data analysis but the main value continue being to work on this topic in a country as Iran. Hope this time you have comments explaining enough how to improve. They can also explain better why the country is a patriarchal organization and the link with gender based violence. Thanks

Response: We thank the reviewer for taking the time to review our manuscript and for emphasising the importance of conducting further research on this pressing issue in countries like Iran. This is a topic that we are actively addressing, with several publications in the pipeline, all focusing on gender-based violence (GBV) in Iran. Additionally, by developing a new and methodologically robust survey, our aim is to gather improved data on GBV in Iran. This approach will enable us to recruit a more representative online sample, thus enhancing the reliability and accuracy of our findings as highlighted by the reviewer.

We have conducted thorough research on existing studies on violence against women and girls (VAWG) and GBV in Iran. Our review of existing evidence has highlighted significant limitations and gaps in this area. Unfortunately, the majority of research on this topic in Iran suffers from serious methodological limitations, underscoring the need for more robustly designed studies. This is an area we are currently addressing, and this paper aims to introduce new avenues for data collection in countries like Iran.

We have added more details about the patriarchal organisation of the country and its link with GBV as suggested by reviewer. It currently reads as:

“VAWG is a particularly significant issue in Iran, a Middle Eastern country characterised by a patriarchal structure and systematic gender discrimination. The patriarchal organisation of the country perpetuates gender inequalities and reinforces societal norms that tolerate or even condone violence against women. For instance, societal norms may discourage survivors from reporting incidents of violence or seeking legal recourse due to fear of stigma or retaliation. Additionally, the patriarchal system may prioritise preserving family honour over addressing the needs and rights of survivors. Additionally, the lack of criminalisation of VAWG in Iran exacerbates the challenges faced by survivors seeking justice and support (Kar 2001, Aghtaie 2017).”

We weren't sure what the reviewer meant by "figures could be improved with deep data analysis," so no further changes were made to the tables. Additional analyses on the "Multifaceted Nature of VAWG in Iran," utilising data from the survey described in this paper, are currently underway. However, we felt they were not suitable for inclusion in this empirical methodology paper, as the main objective was to simply describe VAWG in Iran (descriptive statistics) and, more importantly, to assess the benefits and limitations of using social media to document VAWG in a low- and middle-income (LMI) country. We will ensure to provide deeper analyses of GBV in Iran in subsequent publications.