1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910462979803321

Autore

Hegland Mary Elaine

Titolo

Days of revolution : political unrest in an Iranian village / / Mary Elaine Hegland

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California : , : Stanford University Press, , [2014]

©2014

ISBN

0-8047-8885-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (353 p.)

Disciplina

955/.72

Soggetti

Villages - Iran

Political culture - Iran

Electronic books.

Iran History Revolution, 1979

Iran Politics and government 1979-1997

Iran Politics and government 1997-

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Historical Aliabad -- Political repression : the Mosaddeq era -- Economic transformation and political space -- Recruitment to revolution -- The final months -- After the revolution : the local uprising -- Aliabad : thirty-four years later.

Sommario/riassunto

Outside of Shiraz in the Fars Province of southwestern Iran lies "Aliabad." Mary Hegland arrived in this then-small agricultural village of several thousand people in the summer of 1978, unaware of the momentous changes that would sweep this town and this country in the months ahead. She became the only American researcher to witness the Islamic Revolution firsthand over her eighteen-month stay. Days of Revolution offers an insider's view of how regular people were drawn into, experienced, and influenced the 1979 Revolution and its aftermath. Conventional wisdom assumes Shi'a religious ideology fueled the revolutionary movement. But Hegland counters that the Revolution spread through much more pragmatic concerns: growing inequality, lack of development and employment opportunities, government corruption. Local expectations of leaders and the political



process—expectations developed from their experience with traditional kinship-based factions—guided local villagers' attitudes and decision-making, and they often adopted the religious justifications for Revolution only after joining the uprising. Sharing stories of conflict and revolution alongside in-depth interviews, the book sheds new light on this critical historical moment. Returning to Aliabad decades later, Days of Revolution closes with a view of the village and revolution thirty years on. Over the course of several visits between 2003 and 2008, Mary Hegland investigates the lasting effects of the Revolution on the local political factions and in individual lives. As Iran remains front-page news, this intimate look at the country's recent history and its people has never been more timely or critical for understanding the critical interplay of local and global politics in Iran.