Politics in Modern and Contemporary Iran
POL 443Y1 (Y)
Tuesday 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Prof. Ramin Jahanbegloo
Office: Centre for Ethics, Gerard Larkin Building, room 207 Office Hours: Wednesdays- Fridays, 2-4 p.m. Telephone: (416) 9786362 E-mail: [email protected]
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will provide students with an opportunity to explore politics in modern and contemporary Iran, as well as to address open questions in the relationship between the state and civil society, causes of regime change during the Pahlavi era and the rise of Islamic theocracy in Iran. The course has three interrelated goals: 1) making students familiar with the basic aspects of modern Iranian history, 2) providing them with analytical tools and knowledge for an in- depth understanding of the contemporary politics in Iran, and 3) generating theoretical insight into the question of how modern politics have been perceived and practiced in Iran from the late nineteenth century to the present. Students will learn about Iran’s encounter with modernity, Iranian intellectual trends, the causes and consequences of the 1979 revolution, and the nature of the post-revolutionary political system.
Course Requirements:
Students are expected to attend all class meetings. They will be held responsible for all the material covered in readings and lectures. To ensure class participation and to spread out the work a bit, each student is required to make one oral presentation in class concerning one of the topics listed in the syllabus in which they are interested. Preparation, attendance and participation: In addition to the lectures, we will devote time in class to a discussion of the reading materials. Students should therefore plan to keep up with weekly reading assignments. Students are expected to attend class regularly, having done the assigned readings, and to contribute to class discussions. Papers: Students are required to write one term paper due on January 11, 2011. No late papers will be accepted. The due date is a deadline The paper must have a cover page and bibliography, which should consist of scholarly publications. Each student is expected to write a 15 to 20 page (typed, and double-spaced) research paper on one of the following Iran related topics: Assembly of Religious Experts; Bureaucracy; Cabinet; Class situation (income distribution, inequality); Clerical Establishment; Civil liberties, rights and freedoms; Constitution; Corruption; Cultural life; Economic Performance (employment, inflation, monetary policy, privatization); Educational system; Elections; Electoral system; Environmental issues; Ethnicity; Exile Community; Expediency Council; Foreign Policy; Guardian Council; Intelligence Community and secret police; Interest groups; Legal System and Judiciary; Media; Non- Governmental Organizations; Opposition forces; Legislative Branch; Political Culture; Political elite; Political parties; Political participation (forms/modes/trends); Population and migration policy; Presidency; Social cleavages; Social movements; Social welfare policies (pension, poverty, education); Sources of political legitimacy; Supreme Leader; Theocracy; Youth; Women and Gender issues.
Presentations will be based on topics chosen by students and discussed with the instructor. No presentations on the days of film screenings.
Response Papers: Three films on Iranian politics will be screened in class as preparation for response papers. Response papers are supposed to be handed in on March 22, 2011. Everyone must screen films critically and carefully. You are responsible for writing one response paper ( minimum 5 pages, double-spaced) discussing and analyzing the historical contents in films screened.
Grading Criteria:
Response Papers 10%
Oral Presentation 20%
Research Paper 30%
Final Exam 40%
Required Readings:
Nikki R. Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (Yale University Press, 2006).
Jahanbegloo, Ramin, Iran: Between Tradition and Modernity, (Lexington Press, 2004)
Suggested Readings:
1) Edmund Bosworth and Carole Hillenbrand (eds.), Qajar Iran: Political, Social and Cultural Change 1800-1925 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1983) 2) Elie Kedourie and Sylvia Haim (eds.) Towards A Modern Iran: Studies in Thought, Politics and Society, (London: Frank Cass.1980) 3) Stephanie Cronin (ed.), The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Reza Shah, 1921-1941 (London: Routledge, 2003) 4) George Lenzcowski (ed.), Iran Under the Pahlevis (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1978) 5) John L. Esposito and R. K. Ramazani (eds.), Iran at the Crossroads (New York: Palgrave, 2001)
6) Said Amir Arjomand, “Shi’ite Jurisprudence and Constitution Making in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” , in Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (eds.), Fundamentalisms and the State: Remaking Polities, Economies and Militancy, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 88-109.
7) H.E. Chehabi, “The Impossible Republic: Contradictions of Iran’s Islamic State,” Contention: Debates in Society, Culture, and Science, vol. 5, no. 3 (Spring 1996):
Course expectations and description:
As an instructor, I have a responsibility to come to class prepared, to be accessible when you have questions, to provide you with feedback on your performance, and to help you discover the Iranian politics. This is a two-way street, however. For the course to be successful, you need to come to class having read some materials and with an open mind to consider a diversity of perspectives. Students are expected to read the assigned material in advance. I will start each lecture with a 45-minute discussion of the topic. This will be followed by a general class discussion. All students are strongly encouraged to participate in the discussion based on the reading materials available a week before the lecture. The method of instruction will be directed lecture and discussion, interspersed with occasional films. The title of the documentaries will be announced later.
Course Schedule
September 14, 2010: Introduction: Understanding Modern and Contemporary Iran
September 21, 2010: Qajars and the Encounter with Modernity
September 28, 2010: Politics and Society in 19th Century Iran
October 5, 2010: Reform and Dissent
October 12, 2010: Traditionalism and Westernization
October 19, 2010: Film Screening
October 26, 2010: The Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1906
November 2, 2010: Post-Constitutional Revolution State-Building
November 16, 2010: The Rise and Fall of Reza Shah
November 23, 2010: Mossadeq and Iranian Nationalism
November 30, 2010: Royal Dictatorship: 1953-1977
December 7, 2010: Iranian Intellectuals and the West
January 11, 2011: The Iranian Revolution of 1979
January 18, 2011: Politics and Praxis of Clerics and Ayatollah Khomeini
January 25, 2011: The Islamic Republic of Iran: A Theocracy or a Republic?
February 1, 2011: Society, Gender, Culture Society, Gender, in Post- Revolutionary Iran
February 8, 2011: Film Screening
February 15, 2011: Iranian Civil Society and the Dilemmas of Reform
March 1, 2011: Constitutionalism, Secularism and Religion in Iran
March 8, 2011: Film Screening
March 15, 2011: Youth Politics and Media in Iran
March 22, 2011: Democratizing Iran
March 30, 2011: Iran: A Rising Regional Power?
April 5, 2011: The Political Future of Iran
Additional Readings on Modern and Contemporary Iran
Ervand Abrahamian, Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
Fariba Adelkhah, Being Modern in Iran (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000).
Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
Gholam R. Afkhami, The Iranian Revolution: Thanatos on a National Scale (Washington, DC: Middle East Institute, 1985).
Reza Afshari, Human Rights in Iran: The Abuse of Cultural Relativism (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2001).
Jalal Al-i Ahmad, Occidentosis: A Plague From the West (1983).
Said Amir Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Ali M. Ansari, Confronting Iran: The Failure of American Foreign Policy and the Next Great Conflict in the Middle East (New York: Basic Books, 2006).
Bahman Baktiari, Parliamentary Politics in Revolutionary Iran (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996).
Hossein Bashiriyeh, The State and Revolution in Iran, 1962-1982 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984).
Asef Bayat, Street Politics: Poor People's Movements in Iran (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).
William Beeman, The "Great Satan" vs. the "Mad Mullahs": How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other (Praeger Publishers, 2005).
Maziar Behrooz, Rebels With a Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000).
James A. Bill, The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988).
Daniel Brumberg, Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Wilfried Buchta, Who Rules Iran? The Structure of Power in the Islamic Republic (Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy, 2000).
Anthony H. Cordesman, Iran’s Military Forces in Transition(Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999).
Hamid Dabashi, Iran: A People Interrupted (New York: New Press, 2007).
Samih Farsoun and Mehrdad Mashayekhi (eds.), Iran: Political Culture in the Islamic Republic (London: Routledge, 1992).
Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne (eds.), Mohammed Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran (Syracuse University Press, 2004)
Ali Gheissari and Vali Nasr, Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Roya Hakakian, Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran (New York: Three River Press, 2004).
Forough Jahanbakhsh, Islam, Democracy and Religious Modernism in Iran (Brill, 2001)
Ramin Jahanbegloo (ed.), Iran: Between Tradition and Modernity (Lanham, Lexington Books, 2004).
Nikki Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003).
Ruhollah Khomeini, Islam and Revolution (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1980).
Charles Kurzman, The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004).
Sandra Mackey, The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation (New York: Plume, 1996).
Vanessa Martin, Creating an Islamic State: Khomeini & the Making of a New Iran (Tauris, 2000).
Farzaneh Milani, Veils and Worlds: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992).
Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (Princeton, 1999).
Heshmat Moayyaed (ed.), Stories from Iran: An Anthology of Persian Short Fiction from 1921- 1991 (Washington, Mage Publishers, 2002).
Azadeh Moaveni, Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran (New York: Public Affairs, 2005).
Mehdi Moslem, Factional Politics in Post-Khomeini Iran (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2002).
Nahid Mozaffari and Ahmad Karimi Hakkak (eds.), Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2005)
Negin Nabavi, Intellectuals and the State in Iran: Politics, Discourse, and the Dilemma of Authenticity (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003).
Azar Nafici, Reading Lolita in Iran: a Memoir in Books (New York: Random House, 2004).
Afsaneh Najmabadi, Women with Mustaches and Men Without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity (Berkeley: University of California, 2005).
Farhad Nomani and Sohrab Behdad, Class and Labor in Iran: Did the Revolution Matter? (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006).
Kenneth Pollack, The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America (New York: Random House, 2004).
Nasrin Alavi, We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs (Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2005).
Parvin Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Misagh Parsa, States, Ideologies & Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of Iran. Nicaragua and the Philippines (Cambridge, 2000)
Stephen C. Poulson, Social Movements in Twentieth-Century Iran: Culture, Ideology, and Mobilizing Frameworks (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2005).
Maryam Poya, Women, Work, & Islamism: Ideology and Resistance in Iran (London: Zed Books, 1999).
R.K. Ramazani, Revolutionary Iran: Challenges and Response in the Middle East (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986).
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (NY: Pantheon, 2003).
Asghar Schirazi, The Constitution of Iran: Politics and the State in the Islamic Republic (London: I.B. Tauris, 1997).
Gary Sick, All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran (New York: Random House, 1985).
Roxanne Varzi, Warring Souls: Youth, Media, and Martyrdom in Post-Revolutionary Iran (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006).
SELECTED WEBSITES
HISTORY:
Iranian History Forum
Persian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Eras (500 BCE - 500 CE) Benchmarks in Modern History of Iran
Political Chronology http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/etc/cron.html
DATA:
US Department of State http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5314.htm
Iran's Size Comparison with the US http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_middle_east/iran_area.jpg
Atlas of Iran http://www.mgm.fr/PUB/Iran
Land Use http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_middle_east/iran_land.jpg
Country Profile http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Iran.pdf
Library of Congress Country Study http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
Statistics on Iran http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ir-iran
Iran's Share of World Crude Oil Reserves http://www.opec.org/home/PowerPoint/Reserves/OPEC%20share.htm
NEWS:
News and Views about Iran www.Iranian.com
News Site on Iran http://www.iranmania.com/defaultenglish.asp
Radio Farda http://www.radiofarda.com/
Iran Daily http://www.iran-daily.com/ Iranian Media Directory www.gooya.com
GOVERNMENT:
Governments on the WWW: Iran http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/ir.html
Iranian Mission to the UN http://www.un.int/iran/
Iranian Parliament http://mellat.Majles.ir/
Presidency of the Islamic Republic http://www.president.ir
Who Rules Iran?
OTHER: Encyclopædia Iranica http://www.iranica.com/
Sample Persian Miniatures http://www.superluminal.com/cookbook/index_gallery.html
Iranian women's homepage http://www.irandokht.com/
Pictures of Iran http://www.worldisround.com/articles/73022/index.html
Pictures of Iran http://www.riccardozipoli.com/
Pictures of Tehran http://www.worldisround.com/articles/98910/
Selected Internet Sources on Iran http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/amed/iran/iran.html
Persian Calendar Program http://www.payvand.com/calendar/
Iran's First National Anthem http://www.iranclip.com/player/1012
Civil Code of Iran http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/pdfs/Codes/TheCivilCode.pdf
Penal Code of Iran http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/pdfs/Codes/ThePenalCode.pdf