The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran's Future - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1935554387 ISBN 13: 9781935554387

Publisher: Melville House, 2011

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Nader Hashemi teaches Middle East and Islamic politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. He is the author of Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies.

Danny Postel is the author of Reading “Legitimation Crisis” in Tehran: Iran and the Future of Liberalism.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Many Iranians are recalling the 1979 revolution and the 1997 reform movement...The routes of demonstrations are the same as those against the shah. But this does not mean that people are imitating the 1979 revolution... repetition without mere imitation. For 30 years, the regime has claimed that freedom and, more recently, praising the Iranian people for their political commitment and courage. Now people are taking these claims literally, calling the regime's bluff."
—From the essay "The People Reloaded" by Morad Farhadpour and Omid Mehrgan

About this edition

• Publisher: Melville House
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1935554387
• ISBN 13: 9781935554387
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464
• Editor: Hashemi Nader, Postel Danny