Irans Struggles For Social Justice

This interdisciplinary volume offers a range of studies spanning the various historical, political, legal, and cultural features of social justice in Iran, and proposes that the present-day realities of life in Iran could not be farther from the promises of the Iranian Revolution. The ideals of social justice and participatory democracy that galvanized a resilient nation in 1979 have been abandoned as an avaricious ruling elite has privatized the economy, abandoned social programs and subsidy payments for the poor, and suppressed the struggles of women, workers, students, and minorities for equality. At its core, Iran’s Struggles for Social Justice seeks to educate and to develop a new discourse on social justice in Iran.

This volume extends debates on the interaction between universal human rights and the political experiences of Iranians, through a conceptual analysis of ‘theories of change’. It assesses the practical processes by which individuals, organizations and movements can reform or impact the structural, theological and political challenges faced in the Iranian context. Contributors to this volume investigate how structures, institutions, and agents in Iran maneuver for influence and power at the state level, through the law, in international corridors, at the grassroots, and by implementing multiple and complex methods. The chapters provide distinct but interrelated analysis of key drivers of change in Iran. A number of those operate primarily through top-down approaches, such as the political reform movement, lawyers pursuing legislative change, and international human rights monitoring bodies. Others take a bottom-up approach, including local movements and campaigns such as the women’s movement, the labor movement, the student movement, and ethnic minority groups. By prompting drivers of change to think about causation, influence, sequencing, prioritization, roles and relationships, a theory of change ultimately makes the work more effective. Through rigorous analysis of these issues for drivers of change in the Islamic State, this volume is an important contribution to human rights in Iran. In an era of escalating tensions in the Middle East, it amplifies voices of reform and freedom, filling a crucial gap in our understanding of this region.

A critical and in-depth analysis of access to justice from international and Islamic perspectives, with a specific focus on access by women.

This paper discusses Shaul Bakhash's article, Islam and Social Justice in Iran. Bakhash's article describes how key beliefs about economic and political thought were part and parcel with the early roots of the Shi'a Islamist revival that led to the Iranian revolution in 1979. How those various beliefs interacted with one another is explored.

This book presents an innovative analysis of the solidarity/social economy among low-income religious women in Iran. For years, the role of low-income women in community care and poverty reduction has been underestimated and under-researched in the broader academic community, due to the “invisible” nature of these informal and predominantly religious networks. As economic hardship in Iran increases, women in the community have mobilized to bring assistance to those struggling to make ends meet. The culmination of years of fieldwork in different parts of the country, this book sheds light on how religious women form the backbone of Iran’s social safety net as the welfare state fails and social protection policies dwindle.

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.

The Constitutional Revolution of 1906 launched Iran as a pioneer in a broad-based movement to establish democratic rule in the non-Western world. In a book that provides essential context for understanding modern Iran, Fakhreddin Azimi traces a century of struggle for the establishment of representative government. The promise of constitutional rule was cut short in the 1920s with the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty. Reza Shah, whose despotic rule Azimi deftly captures, maintained the façade of a constitutional monarch but greeted any challenge with an iron fist: “I will eliminate you,” he routinely barked at his officials. In 1941, fearful of losing control of the oil-rich region, the Allies forced Reza Shah to abdicate but allowed Mohammad Reza to succeed his father. Though promising to abide by the constitution, the new Shah missed no opportunity to undermine it. The Anglo-American–backed coup of 1953, which ousted reformist premier Mohammed Mosaddeq, dealt a blow to the constitutionalists. The Shah’s repressive policies and subservience to the United States radicalized both secular and religious opponents, leading to the revolution of 1979. Azimi argues that we have fundamentally misunderstood this event by characterizing it as an “Islamic” revolution when it was in reality the expression of a long-repressed desire for popular sovereignty. This explains why the clerical rulers have failed to counter the growing public conviction that the Islamic Republic, too, is impervious to political reform—and why the democratic impulse that began with the Constitutional Revolution continues to be a potent and resilient force.

Women presented the first effective challenge to the Islamic regime and the clerical authority in post-revolutionary Iran. Women's activism in support of their legal rights and personal freedom, however, did not develop into a strong movement against the rising fundamentalism. The Iranian socialists did not support women's autonomous organizations. The convergence of the Left's populism with Islamic populism, and the influence of the Iranian/Shiite political culture that promotes male authority and female submission, could not reconcile with women's claims to individual rights, choice, and personal freedom and their struggle for autonomy and self-determination in private or public life.

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.