The Crisis of National and Ethnic Identities in Contemporary Iran

Ashraf, Ahmad

doi:10.1080/00210869308701795

Cited by 53 publications

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“…A number of scholars have noted the re-emergence, in the 1990s, of a distinctly Iranian national identity (see Adelkhah 2016;Ashraf 1993;Holliday 2011;Rajaee 2000). As the revolutionary focus turned inwards, official discourse moved from emphasising Islam to emphasising the Iranian nation.…”

Section: Iii)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reading Derrida in Tehran: Between an Open Door and an Empty Sofreh

Yarbakhsh¹

2018

Humanities

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Abstract:We can only begin to grasp hospitality as we enact it and yet, in the moment of enactment, hospitality eludes us. In this paper I look at the enactment of hospitality in the relationship between Iranian citizen-hosts and Afghan refugee-guests in the Islamic Republic of Iran, in order to reflect more broadly on questions of Derridean hospitality. Moving between the theoretical and the ethnographic, I forcefully bring to bear on a situation of protracted refugee displacement, a notion of hospitality that has, to a large extent, remained abstract and unanchored. The scalar shifts between the domestic and the national (so integral to Derrida's theorising of the hospitable), are here reproduced in an examination of Iranian hospitality that simultaneously considers the juridical framework of asylum in the Islamic Republic and the domestic or homely expression of welcome, that occurs in the ushering of the guest over the threshold and the sharing of food around the sofreh.

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Section: Iii)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reading Derrida in Tehran: Between an Open Door and an Empty Sofreh

Yarbakhsh¹

2018

Humanities

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“…Indeed, the whole contemporary history of Iran can be conceived of as the history of struggle over identities (Ashraf, 1993 revolution, in which a theocratic (Islamic) state overthrew its predecessor and was celebrated as the state of God, while the Shah's regime, which had sought to build its legitimacy upon 2500 years of Persian civilization, was re-positioned as the embodiment of Evil (Bashiriyeh, 1984). However, considerable energy and effort notwithstanding, the theocratic regime has not been successful in establishing a pure Islamic identity for Iranian society.…”

Section: Crisis Of Identity In Iranmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fantasy, nostalgia and ideology: A Lacanian reading of post-revolutionary Iran

Kabgani

Clarke

2016

Psychoanal Cult Soc

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IntroductionWhen thinking of ideology, one tends to conceive of it as a configuration of strategic and convergent set of ideas. However, the argument of this paper is founded on the premise that, while a given ideology is supposed to be fed from a clearly identifiable and convergent set of causes and principles, in reality it is often rooted in seemingly divergent and even antagonistic ideas, which can take up different guises within the same context. In other words, from such a perspective, ideology is defined as a body of ideas that, against the commonsense understanding, strategically harbors seemingly opposing ideas that can supplement each other in particular ways. Iran, particularly after 1979 revolution, is a prime example of a country where the state's ideology has been nourished by explicitly divergent ideologies. Specifically, Iran is a country where the state's theocratic-political ideology sometimes goes hand in hand with the nation's plea for a return to the old Persian identityan unwelcome identity from the point of view the post-revolutionary state-to provide a basis for unity in the fight against an external other.An interesting recent situation in which the commonly-supposed anti-state idea of return to Old Persian identity showed its consolidating role in relation to the state ideology can be observed in the reaction of the Iranian Islamic state and its society to the threat of the Islamic State (ISIS). While for the Iranian Shia government, ISIS is considered a serious 2 enemy embodying radical Sunnism, for those Iranians who emphasize their Persian identity, ISIS precisely represents a menace to this pre-Islamic national identity. Now the question that can be raised here is through what mechanism two seemingly opposing sources feed a unified ideology? To put it another way, what is the specific feature of each ideological cause that enables each to supplement the other one?To answer the above question, one needs, before analyzing the ideological apparatus itself, to explain the complexity that the convergence of the two ideological causes give rise to. This complexity can be explained by referring to the fact that the Iranian Islamic State has not adopted a clear standpoint with regards to the notion of Persian heritage and identity. This equivocal positioning of the state is perhaps affected by the fact that it realizes that there are still a noticeable number of Iranians, particularly among the middle-class, who believe that Persian heritage is an essential source which can give a unique dimension to their identity, an aspect reminiscent of an ancient and powerful civilization with sophisticated system of governing and value system as well. Hence the Iranian state is not willing to unequivocally refute the Persian identity. At the same time, the state has no alternative but to put emphasis on its Islamic principles, rather than on Persian heritage, as this is what, according to postrevolutionary leaders, distinguishes their value system from that of the pre-revolution state and also from th...

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“…Some proponents of a purely Persian identity argue that the Persian language is the foundation of Iranian culture and the fact that it resisted the Arab influence and did not disappear, a reality that distinguishes Iran from many other Muslim countries in the region (Baram, 1990), is the evidence for this claim (Ashraf, 1993;Boroujerdi, 1998;Kia, 1998). Kia (1998) language and culture and any radical effort in disconnecting the two would be harmful not only to the language, but also to the cultural continuity of the county (Kia, 1998).…”

Section: Different Conceptions Of National Identity In Iranmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other words, the escalation of nationalist movements was partially a reaction to the threats of foreign dominance. A common theme in the nationalist rhetoric of Iran at the time was a romantic interpretation of Iran's glorious and proud past (Ashraf 1993;Kia, 1998). Iranian intellectuals who subscribed to this movement helped craft a narrative of victory and prosperity of ancient Iran that apparently worked as a remedy for their sense of disappointment.…”

Section: Different Conceptions Of National Identity In Iranmentioning

confidence: 99%

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History Education and the Construction of National Identity in Iran

Zadeh¹

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The Crisis of National and Ethnic Identities in Contemporary Iran

Cited by 53 publications

References 0 publications

Reading Derrida in Tehran: Between an Open Door and an Empty Sofreh

Reading Derrida in Tehran: Between an Open Door and an Empty Sofreh

Fantasy, nostalgia and ideology: A Lacanian reading of post-revolutionary Iran

History Education and the Construction of National Identity in Iran

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