Iranians are writing their history. The pen of the revolutionaries of the 1970s has been supplemented by the keyboard of a new generation. Ayatollah Khomeini’s supporters perfected clandestine pamphleteering and the distribution of audio cassettes to subvert the regime of the shah; today’s activists use Facebook and Twitter to get their message across. This is […]
Geography Archives: Middle East
Iran’s Quiet Revolution: Mohammad Javad Jahangir’s The Invisible Crowd
According to Ervand Abrahamian, a scholar of Iran’s contemporary history, George Rudé’s observation that “perhaps no historical phenomenon has been so thoroughly neglected by historians as the crowd” is particularly true about the Middle East.1 While European journalists have invariably portrayed oriental crowds as “xenophobic mobs” hurling insults and bricks at Western embassies, local conservatives […]
How Many Leftists Are “United for Iran”?
So, how many leftists are United for Iran? “8,000 people at the event in Paris, 4,000 in Stockholm, 3,000 in Amsterdam, more than 2,500 in Washington DC, 2,500 in New York, 2,000 in London. . . ,” says United4Iran.org, the sponsor of the global day of action on 25 July 2009. The low numbers1 (in […]
Riding the “Green Wave” at the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and Beyond
There are many problems with the Campaign for Peace and Democracy’s “Question & Answer on the Iran Crisis,” issued by the CPD on July 7, and widely circulated since then.1 The CPD adopted this format, it tells us, because “some on the left, and others as well, have questioned the legitimacy of and the need […]
Honduras Solidarity Protest at the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, Florida
Take Action in Solidarity with the People of Honduras Gather on Saturday, July 25 at 10:30 am at NW 87th Ave & NW 36th St in Miami On June 28, SOA-trained Honduran generals overthrew the democratically-elected government of President Manuel Zelaya in a military coup. The Honduran social movements are resisting the coup regime and […]
Telling the Stories of Iranian Women’s Lives
I was 10 years old and every week my mother would buy Zan-e Rooz (Today’s Woman), Iran’s highest circulation women-oriented publication, from the neighborhood newsstand. She always said that when I read a magazine I can speak better. My sisters and I would wait for the magazine every Saturday, and I particularly enjoyed reading […]
Interview with Simone Bitton, Director of Rachel
How would you tell the story of your movie Rachel? It is a cinematographic inquiry into the death of a young girl who was crushed by a military vehicle in a diseased country. This young girl was American, the vehicle was an Israeli bulldozer, and the country is Palestine and Israel — a region whose […]
On Sexual Politics in Modern Iran
From Nawal el Saadawi to Janet Afary Dear Janet, I am glad to see you’ve been reading my work since you were a graduate student. Did you read my work in English or Persian? (I write in Arabic.) I very much enjoyed your book: Sexual Politics in Modern Iran. Egypt, my country, and Iran […]
Feeling the Hate in Tel Aviv
“What do you have to say to the Iranian people?” “The Iranians are fucking assholes. I hate them all. They can go fuck themselves.” “What do you have to say to the Iranian people?” “I hate them. I don’t like them.” “What do you think about Obama?” “Obama is a cooshi.” “What?” “He’s a […]
Antisemitism as Metanarrative
Marvin Perry, Frederick M. Schweitzer, eds. Antisemitic Myths: A Historical and Contemporary Anthology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. xxiii + 352 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-34984-2; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-21950-3. This collection of ninety-some documents is the third major product of a long-term collaboration between historians Marvin Perry and Frederick Schweitzer. It is intended […]
Iran’s Green Protesters: “Death to China! Death to Russia!”
Mousavi, Rafsanjani, and their supporters get an F in foreign policy: “‘Death to China!’ and ‘Death to Russia!’ chanted supporters of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi during a sermon by influential former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, according to news reports” (Kristen Chick, Christian Science Monitor, 17 July 2009). “Death to China! Death to Russia!” […]
Rafsanjani Makes His Move
Looking for Leverage By calling for the release of imprisoned protesters, Rafsanjani is hoping that the demonstrators will see him as their backer, and therefore, that they should continue demonstrating. This is the most critical part of his strategy, to align himself with the people on the streets and to bring out as many people […]
Honduran Coup — Made in Washington
15 July 2009 The Department of State had prior knowledge of the coup. The Department of State and the US Congress funded and advised the actors and organizations in Honduras that participated in the coup. The Pentagon trained, schooled, commanded, funded, and armed the Honduran armed forces that perpetrated the coup and that continue to […]
Pro-War Left in Germany?
Klaus Lederer, leader of the Left Party in Germany, at an 11 January 2009 pro-Israel demonstration titled “Solidarity with Israel — Against the Terrorism of Hamas” On this coming Thursday (16 July 2009), the leader of the left-wing party in Berlin, Klaus Lederer, will speak at the offices of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in […]
On the Increasingly Complex Relationship between Immigration Policy and (Inter)national Security
Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, Simon Reich, eds. Immigration, Integration, and Security: America and Europe in Comparative Perspective. The Security Continuum: Global Politics in the Modern Age. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. xi + 480 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8229-4344-0; $27.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8229-5984-7. Migration and security have always been linked, but, as Ariane Chebel […]
Who Needs an Islamic State?
Abdelwahab El-Affendi is a well-known Islamic scholar and political philosopher from Sudan, presently based in London. Author of numerous works, his latest book, provocatively titled Who Needs an Islamic State? discusses what he regards as the serious lacunae in contemporary Islamist political thought, which, in his view, have caused Islamist movements to reach a virtual […]
Recapturing the Middle Ground: “Reasonable Belief” in the European Enlightenment
David Jan Sorkin. The Religious Enlightenment: Protestants, Jews, and Catholics from London to Vienna. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. xv + 339 pp. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-691-13502-1. On January 14, 1791, the Comte de Mirabeau delivered a speech to the National Assembly in defense of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the controversial project […]
Iran, O House of Hope
ایران ای سرای امید On 17 June 2009, Mehr News reported that Mohammad Reza Shajarian wrote a letter to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Managing Director Ezzatollah Zarghami, objecting to the airing of his works on Iranian state TV and radio: “As you know, IRIB repeatedly airs my epic songs particularly ‘O Iran, O […]
Welfare Reform (the Wisconsin Plan) in Israel
Since 2005, Israel has implemented a “welfare to work” program (dubbed the Wisconsin Plan) that serves primarily to punish and further impoverish the country’s most vulnerable residents, particularly Palestinians, Mizrahis, and ultra-orthodox Jewish religious families. This video was brought online by the Alternative Information Center on 1 July 2009.
“Iranian-Americans” Rally (with Tom Tancredo) in Front of White House to Demand “Complete Sanctions” on Iran
These protesters that the Associated Press chose to label just “Iranian-Americans” (see below) are the Mojahedin (one of whose front groups the “National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates” is as you can plainly see from its Web site promoting the cause of “Iranian Opposition Members in Camp Ashraf, Iraq“), Republicans, and their “useful idiots” who have […]
