Neda Bolourchi | Rutgers University (original) (raw)

Papers by Neda Bolourchi

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2024

In September 2022, the Woman Life Freedom movement erupted in response to the in-state-custody de... more In September 2022, the Woman Life Freedom movement erupted in response to the in-state-custody death of Mahsa Jina Amini. An overwhelming number statements from the ground and subsequent reports indicated the use of overwhelming and indiscriminate violence by the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Woman Life Freedom protests. Human rights activists and lawyers demanded the international community take action. The UN established a fact-finding mission to investigate the allegations of human rights abuses and the Commission on the Status of Women as well as the Human Rights Council removed the Islamic Republic as a member. The European Union Council (EUC) considered designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) a terrorist entity, and this became a subject of heated public debate on legal grounds. In turn, this article brief examines whether the EUC may do so. In particular, examined is the accuracy of statements by Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, about the necessity of an EU Member Court's findings.

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2023

The idea for this roundtable emerged from a special session held at the annual meeting of the Mid... more The idea for this roundtable emerged from a special session held at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) in Denver in December 2022. As nationwide protests swept over Iran, many MESA members voiced support for organizing a public conversation that addressed various aspects of the Woman, Life, Freedom (WLF, Zan, Zendegi, Azadi) uprising. Many of the contributors spoke at the special session, whereas others have since been invited to share their perspectives in this forum. The WLF demonstrations unleashed a flurry of contentious exchanges on social media and in real life, unmatched since the creation of the Islamic Republic. Years of pent-up frustration erupted against organizations and individuals who had seemingly been anointed as unoffi-cial representatives of the Iranian public. Angry Iranian citizens who sat sidelined for decades hurled ad hominem attacks at “Iran specialists” they believed had ignored, silenced, or misrepresented their views. Now, much to their surprise, the world was finally listening to them. Despite the sometimes aggressive and intolerant behavior of regime opponents and Islamic Republic loyalists, the WLF uprising opened conversations about the dark legacies of a revolution that several of its advocates (some of whom included activists-turned-academics) had avoided. Some of those conversations and related ideas are in this roundtable.

Abu Aadvark's MENA Academy - substack, 2024

This week’s MENA Academy Weekly Roundup spotlights a fascinating roundtable put together by Neda ... more This week’s MENA Academy Weekly Roundup spotlights a fascinating roundtable put together by Neda Bolourchi and Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet for the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies about (especially, but not exclusively) the diasporic politics surrounding the massive 2022 Iranian “Women, Life, Freedom” revolutionary protest wave. The roundtable originated in a provocative Middle East Studies Association conference panel at the 2022 meeting in Denver. Passions around the Iranian protests were hot at that conference

History and Anthropology, 2022

'Overlooked but Not Forgotten' is the first work to examine the 'Jewish Exemption Claim'. In doin... more 'Overlooked but Not Forgotten' is the first work to examine the 'Jewish Exemption Claim'. In doing so, this article asks two questions. One, is the Jewish Exemption Claim true: did the Islamic Republic exempt Iranian Jews from the 'war fronts' of the Iran-Iraq War ('the War)' from 1980 to 1986? Two, because a clear, definitive answer may be lacking, is there evidence that Jewish Iranians participated in the War at the war fronts as opposed to the home fronts? In addition to examining the original source of the Claim, 'Overlooked but Not Forgotten' analyzes the available empirical data. It also analyzes the digital archives of the Society of Tehran Jews, a civic organization that historically has played a role in Jewish Tehranis' socio-cultural lives. The article also produces oral histories from Tehrani Jews who lived in Iran during the War. Ultimately, 'Overlooked but Not Forgotten' unsettles the Jewish Exemption Claim, helps undo exclusionist representations of how Jewish pasts are archived, narrated, and commemorated, and provides a foundation from which to further pursue research on the Claim.

Losing Our Minds, Coming to Our Senses, 2021

Extant research unfairly dismisses use of the newspaper Shuresh when analyzing mid-20th century I... more Extant research unfairly dismisses use of the newspaper Shuresh when analyzing mid-20th century Iran because of its diction, syntax, and images. The paper contains libel, slander, and violent depictions. Yet, vitally important, Shuresh also helped (re)generate and perpetuate the transformative discourse on Iran as sacred. Rather than seeing Shuresh as unprofessional or illegal, I read the text through its engagement with the senses of sight and sound that aimed to produce an affective resonance and attract a variety of literacies across the religious and political spectra in 1950s Iran. No revolution for Mossadeq or against the imperial British-feudal Iranian relationship, the desired outcome of Karimpour, the newspaper’s editor, would succeed without the riots and revolts of most Iranians.

This article furthers existing work on the sacrificial discourse contained in Shuresh and the discursive processes that produced diverse, willing co-religionists of the Iranian nation-state. “Seeing Red, Hearing the Revolution” shows a crucial element to that argument while simultaneously demonstrating why Shuresh was both popular and infamous: it engaged the sensory perceptions across Iran’s factious society. In other words, the article conceptualizes and demonstrates the value of sensory studies as an approach to Persian cultural production generally and how Shuresh engaged multiple literacies, religious communities, and socio-economic backgrounds specifically. "Seeing Red, Hearing the Revolution" is a valuable contribution because it shows the importance of Shuresh not just in content and ideas but also in the "beyond-the component ways" that enabled its broad spectrum of readers to relate to those ideas on different levels.

Religion and Contemporary Politics, 2019

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2018

This article argues against a universalist theory in which Shi'ism explains all Iranian sacrifice... more This article argues against a universalist theory in which Shi'ism explains all Iranian sacrifices during the Iran-Iraq War. The article asserts four methodological reasons why the current focus on Shi'ism as the explanation for " acts of martyrdom " is insufficient. The " Sacred Defense " literature of Christians, Zoroastrians, and the Fedayeen-e Khalq is examined to support the argument that nearly four decades of the Shah's rule and the battle over the future of the country engendered Iran as the sacred. Iranian minorities also participated in this internal battle. Unsurprisingly these same communities constituted the Iranian military forces at the start of the War. Yet, the reason why these diverse individuals and communities offered of and from themselves remains couched within the hegemonically unhelpful idioms related to Shi'ites and Shi'ism and their alleged culture of martyrdom. This article demonstrates how the Islamic Republic perpetuates this image of its populace, Shias and non-Shias alike, as part of a larger monotheistic culture of sacrifice. In contrast, this article re-inserts these communities back into Iranian history in their own words to demonstrate that some individuals willingly offered their lives during the early stages of the Iran-Iraq War because of nationalism, not a religious culture of sacrifice.

Books by Neda Bolourchi

Losing Our Minds, Coming to Our Senses Sensory readings of Persian Literature and Culture, 2021

This volume offers readings across periods, genres and forms throughout Persian literary history,... more This volume offers readings across periods, genres and forms throughout Persian literary history, demonstrating the value of sensory studies as an approach to Persian cultural production. The chapters conceptualize sensory aesthetics mainly in the context of Persian literature and suggest ways in which sensory studies can be used to reimagine and enrich Persian literary studies.