There are many publications dealing with the political career of Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989), who transformed the political landscape of Iran and the Middle East after the Islamic Revolution of... Show moreThere are many publications dealing with the political career of Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989), who transformed the political landscape of Iran and the Middle East after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Most of the research conducted in the West is on Khomeini’s political strategies, while the influential role of mysticism in all facets of his life is ignored. This book is the first study examining Khomeini’s poetry, mysticism and the reception of his poetry both in Iran and the West. It investigates how Khomeini integrated various doctrines and ideas of Islamic mysticism and Shiiism such as the Perfect Man into his poetry. Show less
So far, the mainstream policy transfer literature has concentrated on North-North and North–South policy transfer. Few studies investigate South–North transfer. Whenever they do, they focus on... Show moreSo far, the mainstream policy transfer literature has concentrated on North-North and North–South policy transfer. Few studies investigate South–North transfer. Whenever they do, they focus on policies that travelled from South America to OECD countries. Africa and the Middle East remain blind spots in the policy transfer literature. This study addresses this research gap by asking how it was possible for a group of public health experts to transfer Iran's health house policy to the Mississippi Delta, USA. Taking the follow-the-policy approach as a starting point, the study uses expert interviews and a qualitative document analysis to reconstruct how an epistemic community of US-Iranian health specialists made use of Iran's Health House Network to address a health crisis in the Mississippi Delta. Applying the science diplomat concept to the policy literature, I argue that South–North policy transfer was facilitated by science diplomats who promoted transfer despite political and financial difficulties. Show less
Countries routinely translate official statements and state media articles from native languages to English. Over time, these articles provide a window into what each government is trying to... Show moreCountries routinely translate official statements and state media articles from native languages to English. Over time, these articles provide a window into what each government is trying to portray to the world. The FOCUSdata Project provides years’ worth of text and language sentiment ratings for hundreds of thousands of articles from state media and ministry of foreign affairs’ websites from North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. Information is an important foreign policy tool and national security strategists analyze how it influences the attitudes and behaviors of foreign audiences. This article introduces the FOCUSdata Project and shows how the sentiment data provide unique abilities to analyze Russia's and Iran's reactions to US policies and events and NGO human rights campaigns. Evaluating countries’ official narratives improves understanding of government signals to outside actors, reactions to crises and foreign policy tools, and interests regarding (un)favorable developments. Governments’ sentiment provides unique explanatory power. Show less
Through bilateral treaties between Moscow, Ankara, Tehran and Kabul, revolutionary diplomacy shaped the ‘Northern Tier’ of the Middle East in the early 1920s. This article argues that the infamous... Show moreThrough bilateral treaties between Moscow, Ankara, Tehran and Kabul, revolutionary diplomacy shaped the ‘Northern Tier’ of the Middle East in the early 1920s. This article argues that the infamous Young Turk leaders, though in exile after the First World War, remained at the centre of a significant moment in transnational revolutionary diplomacy in Eurasia. Based on a hitherto underutilised collection of published and unpublished private papers in juxtaposition with other archival sources, this article illustrates the working of a dual process of internationalism. While campaigning for Muslim internationalism, the Young Turk leaders were able to partake in international politics, but ironically reduced their own legitimacy and capacity as non-state actors by championing revolutionary bilateralism between Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Soviet Russia. Show less
Did the agency of workers represent a driver for change between the 1979 revolution and the 2009 Green Movement in Iran? On what terms? How did discourses around labor transform relations of power... Show moreDid the agency of workers represent a driver for change between the 1979 revolution and the 2009 Green Movement in Iran? On what terms? How did discourses around labor transform relations of power and domination during this period? Which processes shaped workers’ subjectivity within Iranian society in terms of class, social justice, collective thinking and solidarity-building?The abovementioned questions guide 'Precarize' and Divide: Iranian Workers from the 1979 Revolution to the 2009 Green Movement. This dissertation analyses political changes and social transformations in the Iranian labor realm from 1979 to 2009 through the lens of discursive shifts and transformations in hegemonic relations. Whereas workers were crucial to the success of the 1979 revolution, in 2009 they were absent as a collective force. This dissertation examines the reasons explaining this absence. It shows that—beyond state repression—the processes leading to workers’ precarization, both structurally and discursively, hindered workers’ active role in shaping and determining grassroots politics. On the one hand, legal, economic and social factors marginalized workers. On the other hand, the shifting context mirrored the Islamic Republic of Iran’s official discourse and its necessities to consolidate its power. As a result, workers were not able to develop robust solidarity-building mechanisms and cross-class alliances in 2009 as it was in 1979. Show less
Studies of conflicts involving the use of surrogates focus largely on states, viewing the relationship between sponsors and proxies primarily as one in which states utilize nonstate actors as... Show moreStudies of conflicts involving the use of surrogates focus largely on states, viewing the relationship between sponsors and proxies primarily as one in which states utilize nonstate actors as proxies. They have devoted far less attention to sponsor-proxy arrangements in which nonstate actors play super-ordinate roles as sponsors in their own right. Why and how do nonstate actors sponsor proxies? Unlike state sponsors, which value proxies primarily for their military utility, nonstate sponsors select and utilize proxies mainly for their perceived political value. Simply put, states tend to sponsor military surrogates, whereas nonstate actors sponsor political ancillaries. Both endogenous actor-based traits and exogenous structural constraints account for these different approaches. An analysis of three case studies of nonstate sponsors that differ in terms of ideology and capacity—al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the People's Protection Units in Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon—confirms this argument, but also suggests that the ability and desire to control proxies varies with the sponsor's capacity. High-capacity nonstate sponsors such as Hezbollah behave similarly to state sponsors, but remain exceptional. Most nonstate sponsors are less dominant, rendering the relationships to their proxies more transactional and pragmatic, and ultimately less enduring than those of state sponsors and their clients. Show less
This paper explores the transformations of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s dominant narratives on labor between 1979 and 2009. By analyzing official May Day speeches of this period, it navigates... Show moreThis paper explores the transformations of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s dominant narratives on labor between 1979 and 2009. By analyzing official May Day speeches of this period, it navigates multiple constructions of workers’ roles, which were systematically propagated by the IRI’s Supreme Leader and president over time. The analysis relies on the following primary sources: from the 1979 May Day sermon, pronounced by Ruhollah Khomeini, to the 2009 speech given by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, together with messages sent by Ali Khamenei, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. Showing how workers’ role—understood as a collective and distinct group—was gradually minimized, this paper argues that a bottom-up cleaning up process slowly purified May Day. In fact, the IRI progressively neglected workers as (revolutionary) social actors and interlocutors, as it stopped talking to masses and started speaking to middle classes. Show less
Oil is mostly seen as a natural resource and not as a commodity, the production of which involves organisation of social relations of production. This study maps this tightly woven relations... Show moreOil is mostly seen as a natural resource and not as a commodity, the production of which involves organisation of social relations of production. This study maps this tightly woven relations between the workers, the oil company(ies) and the state in the Iranian oil industry focusing on the period between 1951 and 1973, when the management of oil was completely transferred to the National Iranian Oil Company. Through an archival study, the 1951 nationalisation of oil, the organization of labour relations in the industry, the working and living conditions of the workers, and labour activism in the period is scrutinized. The various social class positions oil employees occupied and the specific relation the industry had with the state and thus embeddedness of the economy in social relations is discussed. Show less
This research has been conducted in response to the mystical poems that Ayatollah Khomeini composed during his life. His poems contain multiple mystical topics such as wine, love, annihilation... Show moreThis research has been conducted in response to the mystical poems that Ayatollah Khomeini composed during his life. His poems contain multiple mystical topics such as wine, love, annihilation and adoration of non-Islamic figures. In various poems Ayatollah Khomeini rejects the Kaʿba, the Holy House of God in Mecca. How to interpret these unorthodox poems by the hand of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran? How to explain the paradox of his personality? His poems are also highly interesting because of their biographical and political elements, such as his references to the Iran-Iraq war. The main question of this research is how to interpret Ayatollah Khomeini’s mystical poetry. Are his poems the expressions of a convinced mystic, or did he copy this poetic framework for other purposes? How to interpret his poems in which he rejects Islamic institutions, such as the Kaʿba in Mecca? Is this topic merely a classical metaphor or does it reflect the personal problems he had with Saudi Arabia? And finally, how did his opponents and his followers respond to his poetry? Show less
The existing theories and models for translation quality assessment primarily focus on one specific concept of quality, enforcing a certain inflexible pattern of excellence to all... Show more The existing theories and models for translation quality assessment primarily focus on one specific concept of quality, enforcing a certain inflexible pattern of excellence to all translations they investigate, and often leave no space for hermeneutic interpretation and active decision making about the quality of translation for assessors. The current thesis is primarily an attempt to devise an alternative translation quality assessment model: a flexible assessor-centered model that, instead of promoting a particular concept of excellence or insisting on forcing certain pre-established decisions on assessors, serves as a methodological tool that facilitates the process of assessment and gives assessors full authority to make free decisions about the quality of translations. This model is tested in practice in a real world situation in order to make sure of its optimum functionality. To this end, the theoretical model of assessment in this thesis is followed by a case study in which attempts are made to apply the model in practice to a real world local situation. The case study in this thesis investigates different aspects of the evaluative behavior of two groups of assessors during different stages of the process of assessment within the specific socio-cultural context of Iran. Show less
This study deals with the social history of industrialization and labour in Iran from the inception of the constitutional system in 1906 until the end of Reza Shah’s reign in 1941. It does so by... Show moreThis study deals with the social history of industrialization and labour in Iran from the inception of the constitutional system in 1906 until the end of Reza Shah’s reign in 1941. It does so by particularly referring to the textile industry. In the main, the study seeks to discuss the Iranian industries before and after the large scale industrial leap-forward of 1930s in order to examine the conditions of the working people. The introductory Chapter One discusses the theoretical framework of the research. Chapter Two presents an historical background of the 19th century, insofar as it relates to the period investigated in this work. Chapter Three deals with an overview of the main political, economic and social developments of the years between 1906 and 1941. Chapter Four examines the Iranian industrialization between 1906 and 1941. Chapter Five investigates labour issues. Such issues as the discursive formation of the Iranian working class, the nature of the labour force in Iran during the period under study, labour legislation, working hours, sanitary conditions and workers’ attempts at improving their working and living conditions provide the main concern of this chapter. Chapter Six contains some concluding assessments and suggestions for further research. Show less
The formation of the wage laboring class in the Iranian oil industry during the first decades of the 20th century is studied as a tangled global-local social history. The analysis seeks to... Show moreThe formation of the wage laboring class in the Iranian oil industry during the first decades of the 20th century is studied as a tangled global-local social history. The analysis seeks to situate the oil complex in Iran within the interlinked contexts of the global transformations of World War One, the social and political-economic tumults of the interwar period, the changing geopolitics of the Persian Gulf and Anglo Iranian relations, the consequences of the 1921 coup d’état in Iran, the local transformations of the oil rich province of Khuzestan, and the urban histories of the oil mining town of Masjed Soleyman and especially the refinery and port city of Abadan. As petroleum was becoming the primary raw material of Fordism and the second industrial revolution the accumulation of capital in oil required the dismantling of existing social structures and the reassembly of resources, technical expertise, and populations in modern built environments designed for oil capitalism. The urban social history of these oil cities shed light on the contentious processes that led to the making of an industrial oil working class, as well as the formation of modern state institutions in Iran, and the Anglo Persian Oil Company Show less
The study addresses and explains the issue of negative descriptions of the Arab Other in modern Iranian thought. It attempts to understand and illustrate what the notion of the Arab means for... Show moreThe study addresses and explains the issue of negative descriptions of the Arab Other in modern Iranian thought. It attempts to understand and illustrate what the notion of the Arab means for Iranians and how Arabs are portrayed and by examining how they depicted, It describes why they depicted in modern time in such a way, linking this portrayal to a range of ideologies in modern Iran. In doing this research, the researcher has limited his analysis to a certain body of fiction and non-fiction texts. he has selected writings produced by prominent Iranian authors of a variety of ideological affiliations, including literary works such as short stories, novels, historical stories and works published in academic or semi-academic journals, as well as some works in the field of historiography, all of which were written in Persian by Iranian writers between the 1850s and the 1950s. In a broader sense, the study offers an analytical model for the understanding of the Iranian notions of Self and Other in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It investigates the ethnic and racial attitudes of a number of Iranian writers and thinkers toward Arabs, contributing to an understanding of the way in which the Iranian identity has been shaped in modern times. Show less
Though the genre of political humour is popular across different societies, it is commonly seen as a product of repressive regimes – a mild substitute for free speech and public critique denied to... Show moreThough the genre of political humour is popular across different societies, it is commonly seen as a product of repressive regimes – a mild substitute for free speech and public critique denied to people therein. Moving away from the binary of totalitarian vs. democratic states, this article reads the recent spurt in Ahmadinejad jokes in Iran as a middle class response to fears of a return to the conservative agenda that Ahmadinejad’s victory symbolized. Show less
How are we to understand the Islamic Republic’s battle against women? Women who want gender equality are tried and given hefty jail sentences. By intimidation and detention, the regime forces women... Show moreHow are we to understand the Islamic Republic’s battle against women? Women who want gender equality are tried and given hefty jail sentences. By intimidation and detention, the regime forces women to observe the decreed head and body coverings. But why has the Islamic Republic gone to battle with women? The author argues that the issue is directly linked to the theory of the velayat-e faqih [rule by an Islamic jurist] and the legitimization of rule by Islamic jurists. Without gender apartheid, the velayat-e faqih would cease to have meaning. Show less
Urban young Iranians have recently begun to use the blogosphere and cyberspace to construct new sexual and social discourses. This article describes how Iranian youth link indigenous discourses of... Show moreUrban young Iranians have recently begun to use the blogosphere and cyberspace to construct new sexual and social discourses. This article describes how Iranian youth link indigenous discourses of sexuality to other discourses of sexuality and how they understand their practices as political and social statements. For these youths, the internet provides important avenues to circumvent restrictions on cultural consumption and production while allowing them to engage in “safe” sexual encounters. As such, it fuels the creation of social movements that may pose new challenges to the regime. Show less
By disqualifying the candidacy of 80 incumbent legislators, Iran’s Guardian Council (GC) showed its will to put an end to the reform movement. With a weakened reform movement opposing them, and an... Show moreBy disqualifying the candidacy of 80 incumbent legislators, Iran’s Guardian Council (GC) showed its will to put an end to the reform movement. With a weakened reform movement opposing them, and an international community urging to negotiate with a unique central authority in Iran, the moment was opportune to strike a fatal blow at the electoral system. Show less
