Academic Book Review: Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic

The very recent events taking place in Iran demonstrated how rare are the adequate interpretations of this complex society and political regime. How can someone from outside understand in the same narrative the massive street manifestations mourning Qasem Soleimani and the student protests against the regime following the unintentional shooting of an Ukrainian passager plane killing 176 people on board, most of them brilliant young people?

At a certain extent, democracy makes us lazy. In dictatorships, people learn the hard way of fencing with the restrictions and building their oasis of relatively free thinking. Dictatorships, regardless their breed are not made of homogenous chunks but of individuals that despite the high political pressure, they have their own interests and ideas, including sometimes contrary to the accepted school of thought.

Narges Bajoghli's Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic studies the ways in which authorities are trying to reach the younger generation though media - particularly film - productions. The main question those productions should answer is 'How to transmit the commitment to the revolutionary project from one generation to another?' 

It mainly explores the 'media world' of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, an important paramilitary force active in schools, universities and other institutions. The messages are spread through a plethora of foundations, schools and institutions, as well as formats (tv series, documentaries, films). 

However, it does not mean that the success is overwhelming. Sometimes, people involved in producing the narrative do have unique perspectives, some of them - especially veterans of the Iran/Iraq war - may have their own disappointments. Sometimes, the distribution channels of such messages doesn't go smoothly. Often, the target of those messages does not react as expected. 

There are also specific differences between defending the regime (nezam) and criticism of the government (dowlat), between the insider (khodi) and the outsider (gheyr-e khodi). Identifying and understanding those differences are very important in having a better view of different angles and ideological movements within the Islamic Republic.

The author, Iranian-American, based the book on interviews with representatives of the ideological production, plus an extensive knowledge of those productions. Besides offering a different way for interpretation of the Iranian realities, it shares interesting information about the Iranian movie industry, whose development is at least partially due to the massive state interest in ideological production.

My biggest regret though is that the book is too short, as for me it ended in the middle of a very interesting discussion that I was expected to continue at least for more than 200 pages. 

The Illusions of Royalties: The Shah by Abbas Milani

I grew up in a communist dictatorship in a country that once used to have a king - although a German, non-local dynasty brought to the country by the Big European Powers when they figured out that the local politicians were out of sight and they needed stability in this part of Europe. After the communist took power with the help of the Soviets, the King was exiled in Switzerland and never spoke correctly in the local language of 'his country'. There were also gossips that his family left with a train full of works of art and jewellery, some of them fabricated by the local secret police. 

In the dark days of the dictatorship, when people were starving in cold concrete boxes of matches, and illiterate aparatchiks were in power, the thought that there is a King, somewhere in the beautiful Switzerland who was sending messages to his 'people' via Radio Free Europe was the soul medicine. It means that the country had a chance of normality.

Once the democratic change took place, the King, now of an advanced age, returned to his country. Many people - especially among intellectuals - trusted him and created a little monarchist 'party' dreaming about a right Kingdom in the corrupt country. In other former communist countries - Albania, Bulgaria - inheritors of their fathers' thrones were coming back, welcomed by enthusiastic masses hoping for the same beautiful future as the naive people in my country of birth. Some tried their hand into politics, like Simeon, the Bulgarian tsar, who in a very circumstantial move accepted to be prime-minister.

But the reality showed that those crowned people were out of touch with politics, living in cloud 9th having no idea about what does it mean to manage a country. Their role in mobilizing the imaginary of oppressed people behind microphones of the free media was done. Everyone knew this.

Many are comparing nowadays the situation in Iran with the situation in the communist dictatorships, but they are wrong for reasons that I will not mention right now. But I will focus only on one aspect that given my familiarity with the topic gives me a bit of insight to talk about: the return of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Most of the serious academic accounts and personal accounts from people with a certain unbiased knowledge pledged against it. Besides the grandomanie and the outrageous waste of resources used for personal aims, there is, as in the case of my country of origin royal family, the story of the goods that were stolen from the country. Every time there are protests in Iran, the figure of the Shah and of the monarchy is waved optimistically by international media outlets with a certain bias as Radio Farda and VOA Farsi. The inheritor of the throne appears in the media, launches press releases and his supporters are gathering on the street with the old flag of Iran, screaming in support of the monarchy. In the country, the bloody cynical bureaucrats sending young poor people to death or to prison have a reason to pretend that the protests are, in fact, the puppets of the Pahlavis.    

I was looking for a long time of a reliable monography to figure out by myself about what it really meant the reign of the Pahlavis for Iran and The Shah by Abbas Milani, based on extensive interviews - except the family of the Shah - and archive research was a good start. 

First and foremost, it is written beautifully, which makes easier to navigate the impressive amount of information. I've spent long evenings with this book immersed in the intrigues and small stories accounted for. It reveals a lot about the myth building and nationalism, but also about the history, diplomatic alliances and last but not least, the problematic psychology of this dynasty.

I am very much familiar with European royalties and the entire ritual and philosophy that was built around it starting with the Middle Ages, centered on the Christian traditions and writings. In the case of Iran - and other royal houses in the Muslim world I am partially aware of - there is a completely different approach as it reflects another religious background. The irony was that the Shah was anti-religion, or has a different view on religion than the one of the religious establishment, but maintained a standard of personality cult worthy of the old chronicles of Ferdowsi. Add to it the love for vintage cars, womenazing, and an investor touch that turned all the important businesses in Iran into a provider of income for the extravagant hobbies - like the Zoo on Kish Island (that's my add-on, not in the book). 

What is less known is how the Shah maintained his reign in times when Iran was faced with difficult external decisions, under pressure from both Soviet Russia and the Allied Powers. The book outlines clearly the old connections Soviet Russia started to build into the country from the very beginning of the 20th century, through the Tudeh mostly but later on through its extended network which involves, naturally, KGB spies. 

The Pahlavi times achieved modernisation and started to acknowledge the need of an equal status for women, including by a significant presence of women in public positions and access to universities. It started to change the faces of big cities into architectural works of art, also thanks to the inspiration of the Shahbanou Farah Pahlavi, Shah's third wife which studied - without graduating - architecture in Paris.

But unfortunately for the fate of the country, the Shah was unable to understand the changes taking places among the population, surrounded by sycophants - just like his father - that kept him away from the realities. His alliances, both internal and external were circumstantial and mostly aimed at offering short-term solution to serious grievances. In the words of the author: '(...) the Shah lost his throne because he failed to make concessions at the right time, and because he failed to see the domestic roots of the movement against him'.

What happened after we can still see - although not always properly understand as outsiders: 'The revolution that overthrow him in 1979 was democratic in its nature and its demands. Sadly it begot a regime more despotic than the Shah's own modernizing authoritarianism'. 'The continous tumult in Iranian politics over the last three decades is rooted in the fact that the democratic dreams and aspirations of that revolution were aborted and remain unrealized'.

Will the inheritor of the Pahlavi throne achieve them? My questions are: How? With whom? Why? when you can rather look forward into the future and find the solution which suits the situation and mindset of a generation that has enough of being sold illusions.

In Cascais or Montreux, royalties ghosts are waiting for the right momentum for an interview until the next royal wedding is taking place and they can socialize with their more successful royal peers. In the streets of America or Europe, people with a sour heart of the exile wave pro-monarchists banners and praise the Shah.

Everyone has a dream, but no dreams are equal. Some might easily turn into nightmares.