Book Review: Iran: A Revolution in Turmoil (Edited by Haleh Afshar)

Book chapters contributed by the different authors for this book include Ervand Abrahamian, Haleh Afshar, Kamran Afshar, Reza Fazel, Fereidun Fesharaki, Mohamad Hashem Pesaran and Ayatollah Morteza Motahari. In this review I will provide an overview of the chapters. The major focus of this book is the practical reality of the development process in Iran. Safavid dynasty existed from 1500 to 1722. There was an Allied military occupation of Iran from 1941 to 1945. Iran’s industrialization took place from 1921 to 1941. An American consultant company was involved in the development planning in Iran, which was passed by the Iranian parliament in 1949. Less than half of the population in Iran spoke Farsi (p. 5). 

In the introduction of the book, it has also been mentioned that in the late 1960s, the policies of consolidation of holdings and concentration of resources on the modern, capital-intensive rural concerns, deprived small peasant proprietors of much needed credit and displaced many without providing them with alternative employment The resulting widespread rural poverty led to large-scale rural-urban migration (p. 4). 

One of the authors named Pesaran shows how the IMF choked Iran (p. 31). He adds that about half the doctors of Iran in 1973 were located in Tehran (p. 30). The author states that the oil workers' strike in Khuzestan was instrumental in bringing down the Shah. After the revolution, the Shia uleemas consolidated their political leadership in Iran.

Kamran Afshar quotes Dale W. Jorgenson who argues that: “transfer of labor from agriculture will result in a decline in agricultural production, thereby creating a problem of feeding the increasing urban population (p. 52). Afshar further states that in the 1960s, working with a western model of development and its concepts the planners branded agriculture as ‘backward’ (p. 63).

Haleh Afshar writes that the deleterious effects of the development plans were important contributing factors to the 1978 revolution. She also states that “it is worth noting that the revolution was a primarily urban phenomenon” (p. 71). In the early 1980s farmers were making a 10 000 rials loss per hectare of cultivated wheat (p. 74). Haleh Afshar writes that during the First World War the British, who were occupying the southern provinces of Khouzestan set up the South Persian Rifles, mainly with Indian recruits, to protect the oilfields (p. 176). Under the Qajars the military was always commanded by foreigners. Britian and Russia sent tehri forces to dispose the Shah whose pro-German sympathies were unacceptable to the Western Allies (p. 177-8). The Iranian forces could only last for three days. Reza Shah was deposed and his 18-year-old son Muhammad Reza Shah was placed on the throne by the Allies. 

Fazel mentions that Reza Shah interrupted the seasonal migrations which resulted in massive losses for the nomads. Reza Shah thought the tribal people to be incompatible with national unity and a danger to the internal security of Iran. Shah’s attitude and his actions reflected his intent to destroy the socio-economic and political foundation of the tribal societies (p. 82). He also mentions that in a tribal society the principal mechanism of conflict resolution is mediation by a member of the community who is mutually respected by the disputants. He further states on the same page that the arbitrator must not be hampered by self-interest (p. 89). Fazel writes that the three major tribal populations include Turkomans, Kurds and Baluchis. Abrahamian writes that under Pahelvi Azeri language had been banned from the publishing houses. Writers such as Nabdel were only allowed to get published in Persian.  

Further in the book the authors discuss Fadayan Marxist group, how land reforms by the Shah increased corruption among the bureaucrats, list of foreign oil companies in Iran, Anglo-Persian Agreement of August 1919, drawn up by Lord Curzon, Invasion of Persia by the Russians in 1911, role of bazaar leaders (p. 136), interesting comparison of Iran and Europe with respect to riots, disturbances and strikes (p. 143), theory of urban guerilla warfare developed by communist Brazilian, merger of different groups (p. 169), qualities of Imam Khomeini (p. 208), rich uleema in Iran (p. p. 221), Reza Shah imposition of bureaucratic control over one of the important sources of income for the ulema (p. 222) and Khomeini’s version of Islamic government called Valayateh Fiqh. In the Epilogue of the book, women, educational institutions and media are discussed. The department of humanities was closed for four years under Khomeini and women were not allowed to progress in the field of education.

While reading the book I found some interesting words which include Zargos mountains (xi), boneh (p. 60), joft (p. 69), Dasht-e-Moghan (p. 101), Rasht (p. 124), Sattar Khan (p. 131)- a name in Iran and Savant (p. 203).