A Comparative Reading of Iranian Islamic Revolution (based on the views of Hamid Dabashi, Vali Nasr, Shirin Ebadi and Hamid Algar) *Undergraduate Thesis (original) (raw)
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This thesis has two aims: to expand scholarly understanding of the Iranian Revolution up to its transition to religious totalitarianism, and second, to present a non-deterministic theoretical framework for understanding revolutions more generally, which incorporates both structure and agency. Relying on a combination of extended interviews with leading participants and some hitherto unused primary sources, and with the help of secondary texts, it reconstructs the intense political struggles from 1979-81 and the ideological formations which shaped the revolutionary process, in four steps: (1) an analysis of the ideological foundations of competing discourses of Islam, in particular those of Khomeini, Shariati, Motahari, Bazargan and Banisadr; (2) a narrative of historical events and socio-economic and political changes which set the stage for the Iranian Revolution; (3) a narrative of the process of revolution itself; and (4) a narrative of the emergence of political struggle within ...
International Journal of Political Science & Urban Studies, 2019
The case of Iranian Revolution can be interpreted in different ways in the light of the fact that it is still a revolution that continues to be written and discussed too much about. The study of the Iranian Revolution in literature, in general, confronts a growing resistance with the influence of the opposition people who oppose the oppression of the Pahlavi Dynasty dictatorship and grows under the influence of the Islamic phenomenon. However, in order to understand the Iranian Revolution, the perspective that is focused on the internal dynamics will not be sufficient. The external dynamics and the interaction of external dynamics with these actors must be a further perspective that needs to be focused to understand this particular revolution. In this article, the differences of the Iranian Revolution are evaluated in a different perspective from the point of view of the literature. Rather than explaining the revolution with the historical process, it focused on the external dynamics that constitute the historical process. While evaluating the external dynamics, it is explained that the anarchy created by the Cold War in the international system through the security dilemma, and that the internal dynamic effect of this dilemma in a strategic country such as Iran could be realized by developing the anti-imperialist identity building of Khomeini through discourse and integrating all opposition groups. While evaluating the external dynamics, it is explained that the anarchy created by the Cold War in the international system through the security dilemma, and that the internal dynamic effect of this dilemma in a strategic country such as Iran could be realized by developing the Anti-Imperialist identity building of Khomeini through discourse and realizing the Islamic revolution of all opposition groups.
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 523, Affirmative ActionRevisited (Sep., 1992), pp. 226-227, 1992
The Iranian revolution of 1978-79 has had an unintended salutary result-a virtual flood of works in English of extraordinarily fine quality on modern Iranian history and politics by Iranian scholars now living abroad, works that would probably never otherwise have been written. H. E. Chehabi's book is one of these. The book deals with the history of the Liberation Movement of Iran (Nehzat-e azadi-ye Iran), the political organization that, with its forerunner organizations, Chehabi credits with the responsibility for laying the political and ideological foundations for the Revolution.
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The Iranian revolution of 1979 saw a mass movement of diverse interests and political groups within Iranian society come together to overthrow the Shah. This would eventually lead to the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in April 1979 and the creation of a new constitution that December. However, the movement to depose the Shah and the movement driving the construction of a new political system in Iran constituted two separate movements. As Moghadam (2002:1137) argues, ‘Iran had two revolutions...the populist revolution...[and] the Islamic revolution’. In this essay, I will focus on the ‘populist revolution’ and the extent to which it can be labelled Islamic. This focus on the first revolution is important, as its nature is contested (Kurzman, 1995; Sohrabi, 2018). In contrast, the second revolution was undeniably Islamic: the successful referendum on the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the creation of an Islamic constitution and the enshrinement of Ayatollah Khom...
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The year 1979 witnessed an event that was to impact the world for decades to come. The Western-friendly monarchic regime of Iran that had pushed through a rapid modernization program by leaning on a repressive security apparatus was toppled by a nationwide protest movement and replaced by an Islamist regime. This study delivers, from a historical sociological perspective, an analysis of the major factors that led to this major transformation of Iranian society. The focus lies thereby on the dialectical interplay of endogenous and exogenous factors in-cluding imperialist interventions, a rentier state, a social split, a supply crisis, radical ideologies and the dynamics of a Shiite community.