Hamid Dabashi

This was an almost aggressively terrible book, which I imagine in part must be due to the very short lead time between the events of the Green Revolution in Iran and the time of the book's publication. I picked up this book because I wanted to know more about Iranian history and the political tensions in the region—I'm shamefully ignorant. Yet I felt I learned little more about contemporary Iran than I'd already picked up from newspaper articles. Not only is there remarkably little in here show more about internal politics in Iran, Iran, The Green Movement and the USA reads like a partial first draft, poorly structured and only half thought through. The first few chapters are written like a newspaper op ed, but as the book progresses it becomes more a piece of academic theory, riddled with jargon which is italicised in random places for no good reason. If Dabashi did have anything worthwhile to say about the Revolution, I saw little of it here—due, in great part, to his impenetrable prose style. With sentences like

"which means nothing more than re-worlding the world with the world we have known and lived and experienced, before it was de-worlded by the false binary of 'the West and the Rest'"

Dabashi gives Judith Butler a run for her money in terms of incomprehensibility. (No, he never explains how one can de-world, or re-world, a world.)

Dabashi's methodology is also shoddy. He spends much of the book talking about Iran's ongoing encounter with 'modernity' is causing so much upheaval (which irritated me greatly, because he never defines what he means by 'modernity', a term which I almost always find problematic when used in historical writing), and then turns around in the last chapter to lambast scholars who do use the term. He's either being a hypocrite or he's not aware of what he himself has written. I tend towards believing he's just being sloppy and imprecise in language usage, hence also his use of 'medieval' as shorthand for uncivilised and brutal. This medievalist found that quite inaccurate and, coupled with his use of 'modernity', revealing about Dabashi's conception of historical progress.

What caused me to finally lose faith in learning anything of worth from the book, however, was reaching the section towards the end in which he denounces feminists—they are, it seems, just as bad as religious fundamentalists who oppress women, who torture, rape, and murder people because... well, Dabashi's not quite clear about that, but apparently because they're angry. (Women who are righteously angry: what bitches, amirite? Moral equivalence!) Feeling very uneasy about some of the language Dabashi was using to pillory a "clearly non-Muslim" Western feminist historian for apparently Orientalising and condescending to Iranian Muslimahs, I went hunting through the endnotes and tracked down the offending interview online. Now, I neither speak nor read Persian, so I can't speak to the accuracy of his characterisation of this scholar's words, but this "clearly non-Muslim" woman is evidently, and quite obviously, an Iranian expatriate. That seems like more than simple sloppiness; that's outright misstating the facts in order to suit your case, and an undergrad historian should be aware that that's wrong.

I'd still be interested in reading more about the history of Iran, but I won't be using any more of Dabashi's writing to do so. Alternative recommendations are welcome. show less

The first monograph to thoroughly document Shirin Neshat's video production, The Last Word provides both a beautiful reminder of her work's color and intensity and a crucial tool for her increasing number of fans and scholars. Neshat, who studied in the United States and has lived in New York for many years, found international success following the explosive release of her images of Muslim women wrapped in chadors with verses by rebel Persian poetesses traced on their faces, hands and feet. show more She became renowned when her short film Turbulent was awarded the Leone d'Oro at the 1999 Venice Biennale. With her camera persistently focused on the veiled women of the Muslim world, Neshat has continued to make striking and courageous work of rare beauty and intensity, and has presented it to continuing acclaim. She goes fearlessly into the widening gulf between conformism and revolt, submission and compliance, that characterizes the women of the Muslim world, seeking out images from the far sides of the divide that will both narrow the distance and help viewers sound its depths. The Last Word is a necessity for those who would approach, informed, the poetic works and the fierce commitment of an extraordinary artist. show less

Iran, the Green Movement, and the USA begins with a parable of a wily fox who takes advantage of the former power of a lion king past his prime. With this, the author argues his proposition that due to the involvement of the United States in the Middle East, Iran is perfectly positioned to become a strong nation among the Islamic Republic as the US is neutralizing all of its national threats for it. With the current political climate both nationally and internationally, Iran cannot not win. show more The Green Movement has been a particularly powerful force in building the country's identity both distinct from and in relation to international politics.

Unfortunately, both the writing and argumentation of this book were uneven. Dabashi writes in very dense and academic prose, which would be fine except that the trade-off of such dense writing is that he cycles through his ideas too quickly and too briefly. He expresses a lot of hope and pride for the direction that Iran is taking - but he doesn't do it particularly by analysis of the Green Movement itself. Instead, a lot of his consideration is about the reception of Iran by the rest of the world - whether the Green Movement is credible in everyone else's eyes and how it will change the dynamic of international politics. There is a lot about international involvement in Iran from the time of the Shah (rightfully so) and how that drastically altered Iranian self-identity, but relatively little about the radicalization of Islam in Iran since then, and particularly in response to foreign involvement. There is also relatively little about Ahmadinejad, Khatami, social media, and modernization in the context of Islam - all topics I expected to be central. So, I don't know; what does it mean to have a book ostensibly about Iran's blooming autonomy and self-identity framed largely in the context of how external politics have set up this situation for Iran? show less

The inception of Iran's Green Movement kick started in June 2009. Mahmoud Ahadinejad, seen as the lame duck Presidential appointment of the Iranian ruling elite won a heavily disputed re-election. The principle opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, referred to the result the morning after its announcement as a charade and on the same day demonstrations rallied around chants of - 'where is my vote?' When the state tried to confront this with its own orchestrated counter-demos, and show more repression - it further polarised the conflict. The Green Movements legitimacy earned it support from parts of Iran’s existing ruling class and in the course of a few months it had mobilised some 3 million Iranians against a regime which was using systematic violence and torture against protestors.

When I picked up Hamid Dabashi’s book, I had an expectation it would address a number of questions I had about the Green Movement. Had the movement broken with Mir Hossein Mousavi and co.? What was the class nature of the Green Movement? What if any were the strategic and tactical considerations of the movement? When faced with opposition movements these are a good criteria for judging their potential as movements for liberation. Discussions around what constituted the progressive elements of the Iraqi Resistance in recent years should be a good watershed for those of us looking at any potential hope in the Middle East that doesn’t preclude supporting a group whom are cheer-leading world hegemony a la America and its allies or simply bolstering some future or existing despotic regime under the auspices of ‘fighting imperialism’.

Having finished the book, I think the initial answers I was hoping to attain have not materialised, but the book has given me a deeper understanding of the strategic malaise and possibilities that Iran holds key to in the context of the Middle East. It also thrashes out the cultural baggage that needs to be restored to any movement which wants to dispose of the Ayatollahs in Iran.

The creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran after the eviction of the US backed Shah in the Islamic Revolution 1977-9, put a hostile regime on the American map with the threat of exporting its own brand into the surrounding area. The US under Bush Snr sought to contain the radical Shia regime, by utilising Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-8) and also the Mujahideen and Taliban (both Sunnis) in Afghanistan. This meant within a number of years of its inception, Iran was surrounded by hostile states which was fundamental to American intentions in that period.

This was not to remain for the course though. Fast forward to the present and roles have revised. America is dealing with a regressive geopolitical landscape which implicates it directly in hostilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan’s border territories and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On top of this, the rivalries America sought to play on through Sunni and Shia sectarianism have been eclipsed by their shared hatred for the Western imperialism. So Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iraqi insurgent – Mahdi Army, now have favourable links with the Iranian regime.

Dabashi stresses that the current context of the Middle East is one that is trapped in a ‘false binary’ with the rest of the world, polarising a singular and hostile form of Islamisms which is an offspring of the parochialism of a Christian Empire and Zionism. We are witnessing an Iran locked down and in ‘combat mode’ which is infusing an area which is already suffering the contradictions of imperialism. Dabashi singles out the Israel-Palestinian conflict as the only moral ground which can ascertained by the crony clerical regime by accounts of its own domestic dealings, but it as clear resonance in the Islamic world.

Dabashi seems to weave together a very good analysis of the area pitching together recent history with current affairs but seems to get bogged down in places on the issue of pre-emptive nuclear strikes, sanctions and the potential failings of Obama’s foreign policy. Whole pages are wasted on what he thinks the potential good can be if American foreign policy was not so short-sighted. Western rhetoric aside, it makes me wonder what he thinks the motivations behind the invaision of Iraq were, if they were not market driven. In this matter I think it’s more sensible to draw from the Green Movement, as an oppressed agent in the hope it addresses the multi-faceted problems it’s inflicted with rather than hoping imperialism does a good turn in the region.

In a stacked and loaded area like the Middle East Dabashi rightfully points out the possibilities of the Green Movement becoming an undercurrent which disarms and contradicts the rhetoric of Iran and the Clash of Civilisations style ‘false binary’ it’s feeding into. And he paints at length a view set against an orientalist outlook of western commentators, a context whereby the Green Movement is required and is undertaking the reclaiming of the old cosmopolitan character of Iran.

Some of the arguments need bending into shape a little and its scope might not be immediately warming but its insight into the problems facing Iran and its neighbours, are put forward in a very sound and accessible manner. Dabashi claims cosmopolitanism is already being enmeshed into a vibrant public and underground counter-culture which can reshape the body-politic of the Middle East, let’s hope he’s right. show less