The Greening Of Human Rights In Iran

What counts as human rights, and whose human rights count? These questions are at the center of my dissertation, which analyzes how social justice movements in Iran strategically frame rights narratives for local and international audiences. Conceptually, human rights are a powerful rhetorical tool, which are often used by social movements as a means of political mobilization. However, states can also appropriate rights discourse to justify violent interventions, severely curtailing spaces of political speech. My analysis of contemporary Iranian social movements explains the limitations of using a human rights framework to address environmental degradation and political repression. Several months of qualitative research in Iran informs my study of the ways in which environmental and pro-democracy activists have greened human rights discourse. First, the case of the Orumiyeh environmental justice movement reveals the ways in which environmental conservation is used to make broader human rights claims against the Iranian government. Second, through an analysis of silent protests organized by the Green Movement, I examine how performative silence makes visible both the limits of political speech and resistance to conditions of precarity experienced by Iranian citizens. Through the study of two social justice movements, I argue that international recognition of rights plurality is key to achieving social justice in political contexts where it is challenging to speak openly about human rights.This research draws upon and advances scholarly literatures on human rights, environmental justice, and transnational and postcolonial feminist theory within geography and related disciplines. My research engages with environmental justice scholarship through an examination of how and why environmental concerns are implicated with human rights claims in Iran. Drawing from transnational and postcolonial feminist theory, I examine the ways in which global structures and state practices create conditions that make it difficult for citizens to speak to certain conditions of human insecurity - particularly those experienced by marginalized populations - thus problematizing universal human rights as the normative basis of rights recognition. Findings from my study has significant implications for the ways in which rights are enforced globally by questioning how rights claims are recognized when they are made outside of the normative framework of universal rights, particularly when claims reflect culturally and contextually specific circumstances. My case studies demonstrate the critical importance of not only recognizing and engaging with rights plurality, but ultimately the need for new normative bases for addressing human vulnerability that extends beyond singular, universal notions of human rights and justice.

A comprehensive but concise overview of Iran's politics, economy, military, foreign policy, and nuclear program. The volume chronicles U.S.-Iran relations under six American presidents and probes five options for dealing with Iran. Organized thematically, this book provides top-level briefings by 50 top experts on Iran (both Iranian and Western authors) and is a practical and accessible "go-to" resource for practitioners, policymakers, academics, and students, as well as a fascinating wealth of information for anyone interested in understanding Iran's pivotal role in world politics.

The Green Movement in Iran contains Hamid Dabashi's most important writings on the Iran's June 2009 election, its tumultuous aftermath, and the characteristics and aspirations of the emerging Green Movement. These analyses range from close analysis of the nature of the events to the Green Movement's historical background and future political consequences. The writings have been modified and updated for book publication. The volume presents Dabashi's account of the events since June 12, 2009-the Election Day itself-and his recap of highlights of the build-up period to the mass protests. He provides insightful background for events on the ground, dealing with debates about the credibility of the election. He then discusses political continuity in Iran, as well as the characteristics of the Green Movement. Dabashi argues that the reaction of the custodians of the Islamic Republic to the charge of the election being a fraud only affirms its lost legitimacy, and casts the system as being neither "Islamic" nor a "republic." Dabashi also comments on US politics and its relations to Iran and the Green Movement, pointing out shortcomings in American media culture. The role of the Iranian opposition in the Green Movement and American political policies, the political and economic consequence of the U.S. sanctions against Iran, and the way these may be interpreted by Iranian society are all viewed from an enlightening perspective. Dabashi argues that the Iranian regime, suffering deeply from legitimacy issues, makes use of its bureaucratic, economic, and political leverage to stage a show of support and project division among the people.

The first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi has inspired millions around the globe through her work as a human rights lawyer defending women and children against a brutal regime in Iran. Now Ebadi tells her story of courage and defiance in the face of a government out to destroy her, her family, and her mission: to bring justice to the people and the country she loves. For years the Islamic Republic tried to intimidate Ebadi, but after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rose to power in 2005, the censorship and persecution intensified. The government wiretapped Ebadi’s phones, bugged her law firm, sent spies to follow her, harassed her colleagues, detained her daughter, and arrested her sister on trumped-up charges. It shut down her lectures, fired up mobs to attack her home, seized her offices, and nailed a death threat to her front door. Despite finding herself living under circumstances reminiscent of a spy novel, nothing could keep Ebadi from speaking out and standing up for human dignity. But it was not until she received a phone call from her distraught husband—and he made a shocking confession that would all but destroy her family—that she realized what the intelligence apparatus was capable of to silence its critics. The Iranian government would end up taking everything from Shirin Ebadi—her marriage, friends, and colleagues, her home, her legal career, even her Nobel Prize—but the one thing it could never steal was her spirit to fight for justice and a better future. This is the amazing, at times harrowing, simply astonishing story of a woman who would never give up, no matter the risks. Just as her words and deeds have inspired a nation, Until We Are Free will inspire you to find the courage to stand up for your beliefs. Praise for Until We Are Free “Ebadi recounts the cycle of sinister assaults she faced after she won the Nobel Prize in 2003. Her new memoir, written as a novel-like narrative, captures the precariousness of her situation and her determination to ‘stand firm.’”—The Washington Post “Powerful . . . Although [Ebadi’s] memoir underscores that a slow change will have to come from within Iran, it is also proof of the stunning effects of her nonviolent struggle on behalf of those who bravely, and at a very high cost, keep pushing for the most basic rights.”—The New York Times Book Review “Shirin Ebadi is quite simply the most vital voice for freedom and human rights in Iran.”—Reza Aslan, author of No god but God and Zealot “Shirin Ebadi writes of exile hauntingly and speaks of Iran, her homeland, as the poets do. Ebadi is unafraid of addressing the personal as well as the political and does both fiercely, with introspection and fire.”—Fatima Bhutto, author of The Shadow of the Crescent Moon “I would encourage all to read Dr. Shirin Ebadi’s memoir and to understand how her struggle for human rights continued after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. It is also fascinating to see how she has been affected positively and negatively by her Nobel Prize. This is a must read for all.”—Desmond Tutu “A revealing portrait of the state of political oppression in Iran . . . [Ebadi] is an inspiring figure, and her suspenseful, evocative story is unforgettable.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Ebadi’s courage and strength of character are evident throughout this engrossing text.”—Kirkus Reviews

Reza Afshari reveals Iran's attempt to hide human rights abuses by labeling oppression as an authentic cultural practice.

We live in a highly complex and evolving world that requires a fuller and deeper understanding of how modern technological tools, ideas, practices, and institutions interact, and how different societies adjust themselves to emerging realities of the digital age. This book conveys such issues with a fresh perspective and in a systematic and coherent way. While many studies have explained in depth the change in the aftermath of the unrests and uprisings throughout the world, they rarely mentioned the need for constructing new human rights norms and standards. This edited collection provides a balanced conceptual framework to demonstrate not only the power of autonomous communication networks but also their limits and the increasing setbacks they encounter in different contexts.

A definitive collection of essays and documents on the movement behind Iran's mass protests Since June of 2009, the Islamic Republic of Iran has seen the most dramatic political upheaval in its three decades of rule. What began as a series of mass protests over the official results of a presidential election—engendering the slogan “Where is My Vote?”—has grown into something much larger, indeed the largest political protest since the 1979 revolution. The Green Movement has been described as “an Iranian intifada,” a “great emancipatory event,” a “grassroots civil rights movement a century in the making,” and “something quite extraordinary, perhaps even a social revolution.” What are the movement’s aims—are they revolutionary, reformist, or something else altogether? Does it have a chance of fundamentally changing Iranian politics or removing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office? This momentous anthology explores these critical questions and others by assembling the key statements, communiqués, manifestos, interviews, and debates to have emerged from this vibrant social movement—many of which are translated and published here for the first time. This indispensable volume is the first to bring together the leading voices and key players in Iran’s Green Movement, providing an intellectual and political road map to this turning point in Iran’s history and a vital resource for the study of Iran, social movements, and the future of the Middle East.

This book considers and clarifies many different facets of the international human right to a healthy environment.

This book examines the emergence and development of the 2009 Green Movement in Iran. The approach emphasizes the context and the local and historical specificities in which mass oppositional movements arise, develop and conduct their operations. Meanwhile, it foregrounds an account of multiple modernities that work to transcend modernist assumptions. The volume describes and analyzes the power modalities—disciplinary, biopolitical, and sovereign—employed by the Islamic Republic to governmentalize the masses. Bearing a triangular methodology, the book consists of six semi-structured interviews with authorities and activists who participated in the pivotal events of that period; discourse analysis focusing on the Iranian constitution and the relevant government policy documents and speeches; and archival analysis. These provide the historical background, perspectives and insights required to analyze and explicate the conditions responsible for the emergence of the Green Movement and to grasp how collective action was enabled and organized. Marking a particular historical phase in the development of a home-grown democracy in post-revolutionary Iran, the Green Movement is transforming the country’s political landscape. This book is a key resource to students and scholars interested in comparative politics, Iranian studies and the Middle East.

This book examines the unintended consequences of top-down reforms in Iran, analysing how the Iranian reformist governments (1997–2005) sought to utilise gradual reforms to control independent activism, and how citizens responded to such a disciplinary action. While the governments successfully ‘set the field’ of permitted political participation, part of the civil society that took shape was unexpectedly independent. Despite being a minority, independent activists were not marginal: without them, in fact, the Green Movement of 2009 would not have taken shape. Building on in-depth empirical analysis, the author explains how autonomous activism forms and survives in a semi-authoritarian country. The book contributes to the debate about the implications of elite-led reforms for social reproduction, offering an innovative interpretation and an original analysis of social movements from a political science perspective.