"Gharbzadegi was written in 1962 when the Pahlavi regime seemed to have control over Iran's destiny. For the author, the result was total national submission to the West and its technology. The Iranian monarchy is portrayed in this work as no more than a native brokerage for Western influence, with no aims and identity of its own. Al-e Ahmad sought to rediscover an Iranian identity based on historical and religious criteria, defined in part by a tradition of conflict with the West"--Book jacket.
"In 2012, the year 1433 of the Muslim calendar, the Islamic population throughout the world was estimated at approximately a billion and a half, representing about one-fifth of humanity. In geographical terms, Islam occupies the center of the world, stretching like a big belt across the globe from east to west."--P. vii.
The West is on everyone's lips: it is defended, celebrated, hated. But how and why did it emerge? And whose idea is it? This book is about representations of the West. Drawing on sources from across the world - from Russia to Japan, Iran to Britain - it argues that the West is not merely a Western idea but something that many people around the world have long been creating and stereotyping. The Idea of the West looks at how the great political and ethnic forces of the last century defined themselves in relation to the West, addresses how Soviet communism, 'Asian spirituality', 'Asian values' and radical Islamism used and deployed images of the West. Both topical and wide-ranging, it offers an accessible but provocative portrait of a fascinating subject and it charts the complex relationship between whiteness and the West.
An Iranian scholar and political scientist examines the role of religion in Iranian culture and politics through the twentieth century and beyond. Islamism and Modernism captures the metamorphosis of the Islamic movement in Iran leading up to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, as well as its changing influence in the country today. Its analysis ranges from encounters with Great Britain and the United States in the 1920s to today’s struggles between reformers and hardliners. Capturing the views of four generations of Muslim activists, Farhang Rajaee describes how the extremism of the 1960s gave confidence to Islam-minded Iranians and radicalized the Muslim world. Presenting thought-provoking discussions of religious thinkers such as Ha’eri, Burujerdi, Bazargan, and Shari‘ati, along with contemporaries such as Kadivar, Soroush, and Shabestari, Rajaee sheds light on contemporary Islamic thinking in Iran. A comprehensive study of politics, religion, society, and identity, Islamism and Modernism offers crucial new insight into the aftermath of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution—and its ramifications— for the newest generation of Iranians to face the crossroads of modernity and Islamic discourse.
Studying intellectual trends in Iran in a global historical context, this new intellectual history challenges many dominant paradigms in Iranian historiography and offers a new revisionist interpretation of Iranian modernity.
Since the Islamic revolutionary movement overthrew the "Peacock Throne" (the Shah) in 1979 the Islamic Republic has maintained its credibility and the loyalty of the people of Iran. It has survived an extremely destructive war with Iraq, isolation from the West and the rest of the Middle East except Syria, and the death of the Ayaltollah Khomeini. This book explores the social transformation of Iran in this period stressing the importance of political culture and ideology. It argues that the systematic building of a legitimate Islamic political culture is the key to the success of the regime. The authors of the book address specific aspects of Iran's political culture within a general theoretical framework laid out in the introduction. There is discussion of a wide range of topics ranging from the relationship of the individual to society to "Westoxication", from Shi'ism to the Islamisation of film culture.
This book provides an engaging and insightful look into the definitions, discourse and experiences of Islamophobia and its steady rise since 9/11. It analyses concepts and binaries that are drawn around discussions on civilization, religious dogma, violence, and race. Is there a link between Islam and violence? Why does the West feel threatened by it? The author critically examines these questions and the birth of hate politics which packages hate in a marketable format and often demonizes victims. It also looks at the role of the media in the West in perpetuating stereotypes and its consequences and the nature of war reportage in Islamic countries while deconstructing the narrative of the clash of civilizations. Topical and lucid, this book is a must-read for students and scholars of sociology, international relations, peace and conflict studies, political science, Islamic studies and for other readers interested in these topics.
With more than half its population under twenty years old, Iran is one of the world's most youthful nations. The Iranian state characterizes its youth population in two ways: as a homogeneous mass, "an army of twenty millions" devoted to the Revolution, and as alienated, inauthentic, Westernized consumers who constitute a threat to the society. Much of the focus of the Islamic regime has been on ways to protect Iranian young people from moral hazards and to prevent them from providing a gateway for cultural invasion from the West. Iranian authorities express their anxieties through campaigns that target the young generation and its lifestyle and have led to the criminalization of many of the behaviors that make up youth culture. In this ethnography of contemporary youth culture in Iran's capital, Shahram Khosravi examines how young Tehranis struggle for identity in the battle over the right to self-expression. Khosravi looks closely at the strictures confronting Iranian youth and the ways transnational cultural influences penetrate and flourish. Focusing on gathering places such as shopping centers and coffee shops, Khosravi examines the practices of everyday life through which young Tehranis demonstrate defiance against the official culture and parental dominance. In addition to being sites of opposition, Khosravi argues, these alternative spaces serve as creative centers for expression and, above all, imagination. His analysis reveals the transformative power these spaces have and how they enable young Iranians to develop their own culture as well as individual and generational identities. The text is enriched by examples from literature and cinema and by livid reports from the author's fieldwork.
Drawing on ethnographic encounters with self-identified gay men in Iran, this book explores the construction, enactment, and veiling and unveiling of gay identity and same-sex desire in the capital city of Tehran. The research draws on diverse interpretive, historical, online and empirical sources in order to present critical and nuanced insights into the politics of recognition and representation and the constitution of same-sex desire under the specific conditions of Iranian modernity. As it engages with accounts of the persecuted Iranian gay male subject as a victim of the barbarism of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the book addresses interpretive questions of sexuality governance in transnational contexts and attends to issues of human rights frameworks in weighing social justice and political claims made by and on behalf of sexual and gender minorities. The book thus combines empirical data with a critical consideration of the politics of same-sex desire for Iranian gay men.
