VVolumeolume 1010 - NumberNumber 1 DDecemberecember 22013013 – JanuaryJanuary 22014014 ££44 SSPECIALPECIAL ISSUEISSUE: IIRANRAN – SSIXTYIXTY YEARSYEARS AFTERAFTER THETHE COUPCOUP ● AAcademiccademic sanctionssanctions ● OOilil aandnd thethe ccoupoup ● MMossadeqossadeq andand thethe InternationalInternational BankBank ● TThehe ffallall ooff MMossadeqossadeq revisitedrevisited ● IIran'sran's lliteraryiterary ttraditionradition ● PPolitics,olitics, bbroadcastingroadcasting andand régimerégime changechange ● IIranianranian artart ● SStreettreet aartrt ● IIranran aandnd ShakespeareShakespeare ● IIran'sran's eenvironmentnvironment ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews andand eeventsvents iinn LLondonondon VVolumeolume 1100 - NumberNumber 1 DDecemberecember 22013013 – JJanuaryanuary 22014014 ££44 SSPECIALPECIAL IISSUESSUE: IIRANRAN – SSIXTYIXTY YYEARSEARS AAFTERFTER TTHEHE CCOUPOUP ● AAcademiccademic ssanctionsanctions ● OOilil aandnd tthehe ccoupoup ● MMossadeqossadeq andand thethe IInternationalnternational BBankank ● TThehe ffallall ooff MMossadeqossadeq rrevisitedevisited ● IIran'sran's lliteraryiterary ttraditionradition ● PPolitics,olitics, bbroadcastingroadcasting aandnd rrégimeégime cchangehange ● IIranianranian aartrt ● SStreettreet aartrt ● IIranran aandnd ShakespeareShakespeare ● IIran'sran's eenvironmentnvironment ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews aandnd eeventsvents iinn LLondonondon Parastou Forouhar, Thousand and One Day, 2008 About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) Volume 10 - Number 1 Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide December 2013 – teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle January 2014 East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between Editorial Board individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic Professor Nadje Al-Ali SOAS membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also Ms Narguess Farzad has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle SOAS East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Mr Roger Hardy it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its King's College, London programme of activities. Mrs Nevsal Hughes Association of European Journalists Mr Najm Jarrah Dr George Joff é Mission Statement: Cambridge University Mr Max Scott Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle Gilgamesh Publishing East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Ms Sarah Searight British Foundation for the Study those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in of Arabia London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the Dr Kathryn Spellman Poots AKU and LMEI Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education Dr Sarah Stewart SOAS and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today. Mrs Ionis Th ompson Saudi-British Society and BFSA Dr Shelagh Weir SOAS LMEI Staff: Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College Director Dr Hassan Hakimian Co-ordinating Editor Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking Sarah Johnson Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci Administrative Assistant Valentina Zanardi Listings Vincenzo Paci Designer Disclaimer: Letters to the Editor: Shahla Geramipour Th e Middle East in London is published Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East Please send your letters to the editor at fi ve times a year by the London Middle East Institute at SOAS in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal the LMEI address provided (see left panel) views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their or email [email protected] Publisher and organisations nor those of the LMEI and the MEL's Editorial Offi ce Editorial Board. Although all advertising in the Th e London Middle East Institute magazine is carefully vetted prior to publication, the SOAS University of London LMEI does not accept responsibility for the accuracy Th ornaugh Street, Russell Square of claims made by advertisers. London WC1H 0XG United Kingdom T: +44 (0)20 7898 4490 SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: F: +44 (0)20 7898 4329 E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ To subscribe to Th e Middle East in London, please visit: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/affi liation/ ISSN 1743-7598 Contents 4 19 EDITORIAL Th e writing’s on the wall: street art in Iran LMEI Board of Trustees 5 Haleh Anvari Professor Paul Webley (Chair) Director, SOAS INSIGHT Professor Richard Black, SOAS Economic sanctions: a threat to 21 Dr John Curtis British Museum academic freedom Recalling the future: H E Sir Vincent Fean KCVO Hassan Hakimian post-revolutionary Iranian art Consul General to Jerusalem Professor Ben Fortna, SOAS 7 22 Mr Alan Jenkins IRAN Iran’s environment – a looming Dr Karima Laachir, SOAS Oil and the 1953 coup disaster? Dr Dina Matar, SOAS Dr Barbara Zollner Ervand Abrahamian Morad Tahbaz Birkbeck College 9 24 LMEI Advisory Council Mossadeq and the intervention REVIEWS Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) of the International Bank BOOKS Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem Near and Middle East Department, SOAS Homa Katouzian Th e Power and the People: Paths Mr Stephen Ball of Resistance in the Middle East KPMG 11 Atef Alshaer H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait Sixty years on: the fall of Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani 25 Arab International Women’s Forum Mossadeq revisited Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Oliver Bast BOOKS IN BRIEF President, University College of Bahrain Professor Tony Allan King’s College and SOAS 13 27 Dr Alanoud Alsharekh Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS Th e coup and Iran’s literary RESTAURANT Mr Farad Azima tradition Kateh NetScientifi c Plc Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak Nadje Al-Ali and Mark Douglas Dr Noel Brehony MENAS Associates Ltd. Ms Zeynep Dereli 15 28 APCO Worldwide Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna Politics, broadcasting and OBITUARY British Egyptian Society régime change Keith Stanley McLachlan HE Mr Mazen Kemal Homoud Ambassador, Embassy of the Hashemite Roger Hardy Tony Allan Kingdom of Jordan Mr Zaki Nusseibeh 17 29 Iran’s love aff air with EVENTS IN LONDON Founding Patron and Member of the Shakespearean drama Advisory Council Narguess Farzad Sheikh Mohamed bin Issa al Jaber MBI Al Jaber Foundation December 2013-January 2014 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL © Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad © Peter Brinson and Kurosh DDearear RReadereader An image from the Cat and the Coup, a documentary video game about the 1953 coup in Iran Narguess Farzad, Hassan Hakimian MEL Editorial Board s 2013 draws to a close, Iran's tense and political commentators. First, Ervand concerns about environmental issues in Iran nuclear negotiations with the group Abrahamian explores the confl ict between are discussed by Morad Tahbaz who warns Aof 5+1 have been totally absorbing. imperialism and nationalism placing that air pollution in large cities, threats to But this year also marks another important the nationalisation of Iranian oil in the vanishing forests and drying-up of lakes stand-off between Iran and the West: that wider context of the struggle for control is reaching crisis point. On a happier of the 60th anniversary of the US and British of the oil industry globally. Second, Homa note, Haleh Anvari and a short report on backed coup that removed Mohammad Katouzian looks at the intermediation of a forthcoming exhibition in the Brunei Mossadeq, Iran’s popular premier, from the International Bank for Reconstruction Gallery refl ect on dynamic developments in offi ce and aborted one of the earliest and Development (IBRD) to end the crisis post-revolutionary Iranian art, whether on brushes with democracy in our region. Th is and how Mossadeq could have avoided walls, in the streets or on canvas. Narguess event has unsurprisingly had a profound the coup. In a somewhat sharp contrast Farzad off ers a look at Iran’s particular impact on Iranians' collective memory, to both these views, Oliver Bast argues fondness for Shakespearean drama followed shaping not only the internal politics and that the sapling of democracy in Iran was by a mouth-watering account of an evening external relations of the country but also not uprooted in August 1953 with the in the Persian restaurant Kateh from our more widely its contemporary art and fall of Mossadeq but rather a decade later resident gourmet connoisseurs – Nadje Al- literature. in 1963. And what of the position of the Ali and Mark Douglas. Th e contentious issue of economic media, and in particular the BBC, in those Finally, it is with profound sadness that sanctions against Iran has been debated turbulent summer months of 1953? Roger we mark the death of our former colleague, time and again but the indirect fallout Hardy off ers an in-depth assessment of the an unwavering friend of, and expert on, of these far-reaching measures