Iran's Green Movement
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Iran’s Green Movement: A Foucauldian Account of Everyday Resistance, Political Contestation and Social Mobilization in the Post-Revolutionary Period. by Navid Pourmokhtari Yakhdani A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science University of Alberta © Navid Pourmokhtari Yakhdani, 2018 Abstract In June 2009 there appeared on the streets of Tehran and other major Iranian cities something unprecedented in the thirty-year history of the Islamic Republic: immense crowds engaged in spontaneous forms of collective action directed against what was widely perceived to be election fraud. The so-called Green Movement had emerged upon the scene. This study uses a Foucauldian theoretical/analytical, that is, discursive, framework to examine the emergence and development of the 2009 Green Movement. Such an approach emphasizes the context, or the local and historical specificities, in which mass oppositional movements arise, develop and conduct their operations while at the same time foregrounding an account of multiple modernities that works to transcend modernist assumptions embedded in some mainstream social movement theories, in particular the notion of a Western modernity that is all-encompassing. I begin by making a case for the Green Movement as a movement of movements, the purpose being to reveal its disparate constituencies. I also critique mainstream social movement theories, focusing on their universalistic assumptions and West-centric orientation, and by implication totalizing and grand-causal narratives, that serve to obfuscate rather than elucidate social movements in the Middle East and North Africa. On the basis of this critique, and drawing upon Michel Foucault’s governmentality-power-resistance nexus model, I describe and analyze the power modalities, disciplinary, biopolitical, and sovereign, employed by the Islamic Republic to governmentalize the masses. It is at the point of application of these power modalities that an immense field of possibility opens up for resistance to the status quo, both social and political. Three research questions are addressed: What set of conditions, historical, economic, social and political, gave rise to the 2009 Green Movement? What ends did the Green Movement ii seek to achieve, and to what extent were they realized? To what degree did it signify a paradigm shift in Iran’s social and political landscape? In answering these queries, I bring to bear a triangular methodology consisting of six semi-structured interviews with authorities on Iran’s post-revolutionary period as well as activists who participated in the pivotal events of that period; discourse analysis focusing on the Iranian constitution and the relevant government policy documents and publications and official speeches; and archival analysis of primary and secondary sources. This will provide the historical background, perspectives and insights required both to analyze and explicate the historical, social and political conditions responsible for the emergence of the Green Movement and grasp how collective action was enabled and organized. Two conclusions may be drawn from this study. First, the Green Movement may be more constructively viewed as what I call a movement of movements, by which I mean a mega social movement consisting of smaller oppositional movements, or in Foucauldian terms, a coalition of smaller movements of counterconduct. Second, this movement of movements marks a particular historical phase in the development of a home-grown democracy in post-revolutionary Iran, and for this reason signals a paradigmatic paradigm shift with profound social implications for transforming the country’s political landscape. iii Preface Part of Chapter 1, in addition to Chapters 2, 5 and conclusion, of this dissertation were published in Sociology of Islam (2014) and Foucault Studies (2017). iv This work is dedicated to the uncelebrated multitudes who have sacrificed so much to create a better Iran and to my wife Shadan and daughter Mouness who are the light of my world. v Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible but for the efforts of several individuals. I wish first and foremost to thank my supervisor, Dr. Mojtaba Mahdavi, Department of Political Science, University of Alberta, for his generous support and unerring guidance during all phases of the project. Dr. Mahdavi fostered a climate of respect, free exchange of views, which provided the basis upon which to articulate ideas, operationalize concepts, and critically engage mainstream theories—a sine qua non for interrogating oppositional mass social movements. Special thanks are owed my PhD committee members: Drs. Janine Brodie and Yasmeen Abu-Laban, both with the Department of Political Science, University of Alberta. An authority on Foucault, Dr. Brodie provided key insights on the thought of one of critical social theory’s greatest luminaries and the chief influence on this work. A great debt of gratitude is also owed her for assisting me in grappling with the theoretical and methodological issues that so often emerged. Dr. Abu-Laban proved invaluable in guiding the research, pointing out pitfalls to be avoided, suggesting new avenues of research, and strengthening the project’s analytical and methodological underpinnings. My sincerest and deepest thanks to all. Finally, I wish to thank my wife for her unstinting support over the course of my PhD studies. Despite my frequent absences and occasional doubts regarding the career path upon which I embarked upon, her faith in me never once wavered. Shadan will forever be my muse, inspiring me to speak truth to power. Thank you! vi Introduction Chapter Breakdown 8 Chapter 1 Critical Literature Review Introduction 14 Characterizing the Green Movement 14 Mainstream Social Movement Theories 18 Social Movement Theories and Specificities of MENA Oppositional Movements: Mobilizing Structures and the Politics of Everyday Life 24 Social Movement Studies and MENA oppositional Movements 41 Iran’s Green Movement as a movement of movements 50 Conclusion 53 Chapter 2 Theorizing the Green Movement: A Foucauldian Model Introduction 55 Social Sciences as Political Science: The Political Foucault 56 Foucault, Studies of Governmentality and the Power-resistance Nexus: A Constellational Approach 66 Foucault, Governmentality and Movements of Counterconduct 78 Iran’s Islamist Governmentality: The Green Movement as a Localized Case of Counterconduct 89 Triangular Research Methodology 94 Conclusion 98 Chapter 3 The Coming of a Disciplinary Society to Post-Revolutionary Iran: Ordinary Iranians and Everyday Resistance Introduction 99 Governmentality: A Foucauldian Account of Power and Resistance 102 An Islamist Governmentality: The Islamic Republic and the Governmentalization of Politics and Religion 103 The Emergence of a Disciplinary and Biopolitical Society in Post-Revolutionary Iran 111 The Islamic Republic and the Governmentalization of Public Spaces 112 The Islamic Republic and the Governmentalization of Iranian Strata 116 The Islamic Republic: The Everyday Mechanics and Techniques of Control 122 The Islamic Republic and the Art of Repression 131 Post-Revolutionary Iran: Iranians, the Everyday Life and Everyday Resistance 139 Everyday Resistance and Post-Revolutionary Movements of Counterconduct 141 Conclusion 159 vii Chapter 4 Social Mobilization and Political Contestation in Iran at the Turn of the Millennium: The 1999 Student Movement and the 2006 Women’s One Million Signature Campaign Introduction 161 Governmentality, Discourse, and the Politics of Contestation 164 The Death of the Ayatollah Khomeini: The Emergence of Two Antithetical Discourses, One Absolutist the Other Reformist 169 Islamist Governmentality Negated: Reformism as a Religio-Democratized Governmental Project 182 Political Contestation in post-1997 Iran: Reformist vs. Absolutists 196 Reformist and Absolutist Discourses and Students and the Battle of Ideas 205 The 1999 Student Uprising 212 Women and Politics of Social Contestation 219 Presence-as-Resistance: Women, Public Spaces, and the Politics of Contestation 231 The 2006 Women’s One Million Signature Campaign: The Everyday Politics of Social Contestation 234 Conclusion 239 Chapter 5 The Green Movement as a Movement of Movements and the Rise of a Homegrown, Rights- Based Society in Post-Revolutionary Iran Introduction 241 Foucault, Governmentality and Counterconduct 245 Ahmadinejad’s Rise to Power: The Emergence of a Neo-Absolutist Discourse 254 The New Right, the Neo-Absolutist Discourse, and the Rise of a Neo-Islamist Governmentality 258 Neo-Islamist Governmentalization in Practice: The Micro and Macro Practices of Governing life 265 Presence-as-Resistance: The Everyday Politics of Negation and Rejection 275 The Months and Weeks Preceding the 2009 Presidential Election 285 The Green Movement as a Movement of Movements 292 A Homegrown Rights-based Society: Reformism-Reconfigured and the Rise of a New Counterdiscourse in Post-Revolutionary Iran 299 Conclusion 310 Conclusion What were the Iranians Dreaming about in 2009? The Green Movement of Counterconduct: A History of the Past, the Present and the Future The Green Movement: History, Presence, and Future 317 The Revolution of 1979 and the 2009 Green Movement: What were in 2009 Iranians Dreaming, Again? 319 The Post-Revolutionary Movements of Counterconduct: The Social as Political 329 The Green Movement, Counterconduct and its Counterparts within the MENA Region 335