The rapid pace of cultural and social transformations in contemporary Iranian society reflects the growing influence of social media on everyday social life, extending the domain of cultural governance beyond physical settings into digital and platform-based environments. Within this context, women’s digital engagement on Instagram has emerged as a significant arena for the representation and stabilization of lifestyle patterns. Accordingly, this study aims to explain the socio-cultural processes shaping the lifestyle promoted by women influencers on Instagram and to conceptualize the logic of their influence within the Iranian social context, with particular attention to its implications for cultural governance.

This research is based on field data derived from a large-scale monitoring and surveillance project of the digital space and employs a qualitative approach using thematic analysis. In this framework, 443 women digital leaders were identified, and detailed data were collected for 300 of them. The findings are organized into a three-layered conceptual process model that explains women influencers’ agency across (1) arenas and contexts of lifestyle representation, (2) dominant mechanisms of influence—such as body-centeredness, performative living, luxury-oriented consumerism, and platform-based authority—and (3) the resulting socio-cultural consequences. The results indicate that effective engagement with Instagram-mediated lifestyles requires moving beyond descriptive readings toward a process-oriented, model-based, and evidence-informed approach to cultural governance in the digital sphere.