Amazon.com: Iran and the Challenge of Diversity: Islamic Fundamentalism, Aryanist Racism, and Democratic Struggles: Alireza Asgharzadeh: Books

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"At a time when there is so much interest in Iran and such temptation to oversimplify or stereotype political developments in the region, along comes Alireza Asgharzadeh, an Iranian-raised Azerbaijani now working in Canada with a flowing, decolonizing, poetic call for a new and energizing look at language, power, race and hope. Brilliant."--Budd Hall, Senior Fellow, Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria

"This book makes an original contribution to the scholarship on race and the poetics of anti-racism by highlighting the intersections of race with language, culture, and education. The book is a bold attempt to re-theorize race and its intersections with language, class and the cultural politics of education. It adds to our knowledge on how to resist the poisonous virus of racism. It is a most welcome addition to literature on difference and power, multilingualism, and critical anti-racist education."--George J. Sefa Dei, Professor and Chair of Sociology and Equity Studies, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto

"There is no doubt in my mind that this is the most comprehensive and exhaustive study in the English language of the roots of the plight of oppressed nationalities in Iran. The book will allow academics, literary theorists and professors, politicians and journalists--as well as laymen--to acquire an in-depth knowledge of what systematic oppression can inflict upon cultures which could have flourished."--Reza Baraheni, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Toronto

"This provides a powerful unraveling of the historical, political and discursive strands of racism and nationalism woven through the complex tapestry of Iranian society. The anti-racist and anti-colonial framework of the book enables a critical engagement with the politics of nation building that has silenced and excluded marginalized and minoritized histories, languages and cultures within Iran. This book is a unique, timely and much needed examination of the social, cultural and religious politics in Iran."--Jasmine Zine, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University

"The book makes an original contribution as the first multidisciplinary study of Iran's multiethnic factor, and it will prove a timely resource to students and policy-makers."--Brenda Shaffer, Research Fellow, International Security Program, Harvard University

Product Description

This book interrogates the racist construction of Arya/Aria and Aryanism in an Iranian context, arguing that a racialized interpretation of these concepts has given the Indo-European speaking Persian ethnic group an advantage over Iran’s non-Persian nationalities and communities. Based on multidisciplinary research drawing on history, sociology, literature, politics, anthropology and cultural studies, Alireza Asgharzadeh critiques the privileged place of Farsi and the Persian ethnic group in contemporary Iran. The book highlights difference and diversity as major socio-political issues that will determine the future course of social, cultural, and political developments in Iran. Pointing to the increasing inadequacy of Islamic fundamentalism in functioning as a grand narrative, Asgharzadeh explores the racist approach of the current Islamic government to issues of difference and diversity in the country, and shows how these issues are challenging the very existence of the Islamic regime in Iran.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (June 12, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1403980802
ISBN-13: 978-1403980809
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,020,751 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Racism Iranian style, January 14, 2008

By	P. Nagy "revreader" (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Iran and the Challenge of Diversity: Islamic Fundamentalism, Aryanist Racism, and Democratic Struggles by Alireza Asgharzadeh (Palgrave Macmillan) interrogates the racist construction of Arya/Aria and Aryanism in an Iranian context, arguing that a racialized interpretation of these concepts has given the Indo-European speaking Persian ethnic group an advantage over Iran's non-Persian nationalities and communities. Based on multidisciplinary research drawing on history, sociology, literature, politics, anthropology and cultural studies, Alireza Asgharzadeh critiques the privileged place of Farsi and the Persian ethnic group in contemporary Iran. The book highlights difference and diversity as major socio-political issues that will determine the future course of social, cultural, and political developments in Iran. Pointing to the increasing inadequacy of Islamic fundamentalism in functioning as a grand narrative, Asgharzadeh explores the racist approach of the current Islamic government to issues of difference and diversity in the country, and shows how these issues are challenging the very existence of the Islamic regime in Iran.
This study is a multidisciplinary work that draws on fields of history, sociology, literature, politics, anthropology, and cultural studies to explore the origina-tion, development, and continuation of racist ideas in Iran. It analyzes the relationships among European racist ideas, the creation of the Indo-European language family, and the emergence of modern racism in Iran, interrogating the construction of notions such as Aria, Aryan race, and Aryanism in an Iranian context. By situating Iran within the Orientalist dis-course and by exploring its cultural, linguistic, and ethnic developments in light of Orientalist/Aryanist reconstruction of Iran's history, the study exam-ines various levels of nation building, identity construction, and aggressive nationalism in Iran. It shows the way in which nationalism and racism worked to place the Indo-European-speaking Persian ethnic group in a position of advantage vis-a-vis Iran's non-Persian nationalities, ethnic groups, and com-munities. In so doing, it challenges conventional notions about Iran's history, culture, and language by privileging the multinational, multicultural, and multilingual character of Iranian society.
Employing multiple perspectives and theoretical frameworks, the study analyzes issues of ethnic inequality, exclusion, and oppression in Iran from antiracist and anticolonial standpoints. It establishes the existence of racism in Iran as a salient determining factor in creating social inequality, oppression, and unequal power relations. Surveying select works of history, literature, religion, politics, and various official and nonofficial publications, the research examines how the dominant group uses sites such as literature, history, language, and the education system as strategic spaces from which to justify its privileged position in society. Through a critical exploration of the dominant discourse, the study suggests the possibility that the minoritized can also use their own discursive sites to resist acts of racism, colonialism, and oppression. To this end, it offers an analysis of a "counterhegemonic" dis-course created by the marginalized to resist and combat racism. The study points to obvious limitations of these sites for the colonized and offers ways to improve their effectiveness. By way of a conclusion, the study highlights future directions for research and possibilities for democratic transformations in an Iranian as well as a Middle Eastern context.
In completing this study, in addition to benefiting from other experiences in the form of existing narratives on the topic, Asgharzadeh also draws on his own personal experience and knowledge. As a member of the minoritized Azerbaijani ethnic group in Iran, from early childhood Asgharzadeh learned the pain and agony of not being able to communicate, read, and write in my own mother tongue. Shortly after the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925, all non-Persian ethnic groups and nationalities in Iran were denied the right to education in our own languages. Notwithstanding the fact that Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchs, Turkmens, and others constituted the numerical majority in the country, the government sought to supplant our languages, cultures, and histories with those of the Persian minority. As non-Persian citizens of Iran, we were subjected to open and shameful acts of linguicide, cultural annihilation, and forced assimilation.
Asgharzadeh completed his primary and secondary education in a schooling system where he was not allowed to read, write, and even speak his own mother tongue. The education system in Iran promoted and enforced a superficial sense of nationalism based on Persian language and identity. The richly multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual character of Iranian society was explicitly denied. The school environment, textbooks, curricula, extracurricular activities, teachers, and school administrative personnel all subscribed to and served the view that saw Iran as one nation with one language and one identity. In essence, monoculturalism and monolingualism became the official doctrine of nation-building processes in the country. As a result, the Iranian education system itself came to function as a huge engine for linguicide, deculturation, and assimilation.
Like millions of non-Farsi-speaking Iranians, Asgharzadeh grew up longing for an education system where difference and diversity were valued, where students were encouraged and felt proud to talk in their own language, to read their history along with other histories, to see that their people's contributions were registered in textbooks alongside other contributions, to feel proud of who they were and where they came from. However, achievement of these aims and goals in his birthplace remained an ideal for me and millions of other students, teachers, and educators. Asgharzadeh left Iran in his early twenties with a vision of aspiring to live in a society where difference and diversity were respected. Later on when Asgharzadeh finally found his way into Canadian learning centers, he was really impressed to see the level of attention, discussion, and analysis that went into conceptualization, theorization, and realization of difference and diversity in these institutions of learning and education.
It was in Canada where Asgharzadeh learned to read and write in his own mother tongue. For a period of three years he closely worked with a bilingual magazine published by the Azeri-Canadian Community Center in Toronto. Shortly after, he became the editor of another Azerbijani-Persian journal titled Qurtulush. Working with these journals opened up new ways of learning about issues of power, cultural hegemony, and linguistic repression. The mere fact that these journals were partly written in the Azeri language was reason enough for members of the dominant language to brand him and his colleagues as traitors, secessionists, and separatists. Without even reading the journal and knowing its content, former friends and acquaintances began to isolate him, considering Asgharzadeh a dangerous, radical element disloyal to Iran's territorial integrity. It was due to this painful experience that he came to realize the degree of shortsightedness and narrow-mindedness that a reactionary sense of nation, nationalism, national boundaries, and nation-statism can generate. Experiencing the oppressive conduct of members of the dominant group made me conscious of the degree to which being positioned in a place of privilege due to one's language and ethnicity can blind one to the viciousness of injustice and oppression. The repressive actions and behaviors of some members of the dominant group resulted in his deeper understanding and appreciation of such basic rights and freedoms as the freedom of expression, democratic rights, and the right for self-determination at both individual and collective levels.
The experience of writing for, and running, a minority-language journal placed me at the center of various nationalistic, ethnic, and linguistic encounters. More and more Asgharzadeh came to an understanding that, given the history of Oriental despotism, arbitrary incriminations, persecutions, and marginalizations in an Iranian and Middle Eastern context, any notion of a democratic system in a society such as ours must be grounded in a clearly articulated principle of "the right for self-determination." What this means is that any democratic system for us should be based on a voluntary desire and willingness of various nationalities to come together and form a federal or a confederative political system. A most essential requirement of such a system is both the acknowledgment and realization of the individual and collective freedom of Iran's various nationalities and ethnic groups to choose and to determine in a democratic manner their own destiny.
For an antiracist and antioppression activist, working on issues of difference and diversity is not and cannot be an exclusively academic matter. It is, first and foremost, a matter of working toward the larger ideals of social justice, human rights, inclusivity, and democracy. Such ideals may have a chance of being realized in a Middle Eastern context, only if and when the right to be different is properly acknowledged and implemented. The time for denying difference and diversity, for ignoring ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious plurality in our Iranian society has long passed. It is high time to embrace an inclusively representative democracy in line with universal principles of human rights and freedoms.
The book is divided into four main interconnected parts: (1) theoretical and methodological issues; (2) Iranian diversity in historical contexts; (3) dominant discourse and counternarratives; (4) conclusions, implications, and future directions. Chapter 1 establishes the boundaries of the study, providing a comprehensive introduction to the book. This chapter also gives an overview of current state of difference and diversity in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the way the government deals with this phenomenon, and the way this phenomenon challenges the totalizing and totalitarian Islamic state.
Chapter 2 provides an overview of discursive/theoretical frameworks that inform and influence this study. They include the anticolonial discursive framework, antiracism theory, critical discourse analysis, and postcolonial theory. The chapter discusses the main tenets of these theories and outlines their relevance to the present work. The chapter also covers the literature review, methods of research, data analysis, and related research tools and issues that have been used throughout the study.
Chapter 3 contextualizes the construction of the "Iranian nation" in a historical setting. It interrogates the paradigm of "Aryan myth" and its implications for the current racism in Iranian society. The chapter surveys various methods and genres of historical investigation on and about Iran. In particu-lar, the chapter looks into the construction of images of Persia, Cyrus, and the Achaemenids through such sources as the Old Testament as well as in certain Greek and Islamic writings. A study of the construction of the image of Persia in ancient texts is important because of its relevance to issues of ethnic domination, cultural appropriation, and denial of diversity in the present. The chapter also investigates the Orientalist reconstruction of Iran's history which sought to find an original homeland for the white Nordic race. In order to establish the existence of such an origin, Orientalists had to fabricate various myths crafted by way of misinterpretations and misrepresen-tations, which culminated in, among other things, the elevation of the Persian minority to the status of a "superior race" with superior culture and language while excluding non-Persian ethnic groups from Iran's history. An interrogation of the Aryanist paradigm illustrates the extent to which Aria based racism is still relevant and functional in contemporary Iran.
Chapter 4 looks into the rise of Reza Khan to power, the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty, and the implications that it has had for Iran's non-Persian communities. Brought to power in 1921 through a British-engineered coup d'�tat, Reza Shah's regime gave birth to the infamous doctrine of "one nation, one language, one country." This doctrine was faithfully followed by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah and has had detrimental consequences for non-Persian ethnic groups. In essence, a main concern of the Pahlavi regime was to create a monolithic Iranian nation based on the Persian language and culture. The chapter explores the stiffing of diversity in this era and its implications for the present. The chapter also explores the current state of difference and diversity in Iran by exploring salient aspects of the politics and policies of the Islamic Republic toward minoritized communities. Deviating troni wnventional methods of research on the subject, the chapter highlights the historical conti-nuity of struggle for equal treatment and equal rights on the part of such major ethnic groups as Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchs, and Turlunens.
Chapters 5 and 6 focus on the role of the dominant literature and the mar-ginalized discourse, respectively. In addition to official documents produced by the governing bodies, the literature in these chapters also include works of elites as well as "ordinary" writers, poets, and intellectuals. Allocation of an independent space to explore this genre of work was necessary in that many dominant bodies contend that acts of racism and exclusion are committed only by the governing apparatuses and that ordinary intellectuals and writers are "innocent" in the oppression of minonnzed communities. An investigation of samples of the dominant literature in chapter 5 shows that the majority of writers, poets, and intellectuals producing work in the dominant language are not so "innocent" as we are led to believe that they are. For the most part, they are at least accomplices in perpetuating feelings of superiority complexes for the dominant, while inferiorizing the others.
When it comes to articulating various linguistic and ethnic/national demands, the dominant group promotes the position that the majority of members of non-Persian communities are quite happy with the subordinated status of their language and culture; and that it is only a few elite who raise the banner of ethnic equality and equal treatment. An exploration of works of various genres produced by the marginalized in chapter 6 shows that, con-trary to the dominant claims, the excluded communities indeed do want real-ize their ethnic, cultural, and human rights and that they do resist acts of racism and xenophobia directed against them. Moreover, the allocation of an independent space to the marginalized literature serves to decolonize the spaces traditionally considered as the exclusive domain of the dominant.
And finally, chapter 7 brings together the thrust of various arguments pursued throughout the book. It also elaborates on a number of democratic possibilities that may have a positive impact on the status of diversity and its management in contemporary Iran. This chapter highlights the importance of education in initiating change and transformation in society. Likewise, it explores the functioning of such democratic bodies as civil society, the need for transparency, and freedom of expression as significant stepping stones on the path to equal treatment and full inclusion. Moreover, the section high-lights the importance of acknowledging difference and diversity in dismantling such totalizing ideologies as Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East generally, and in Iran in particular.

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