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).

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Book Review: The Old World: Early Man To the Development of Agriculture (Under the editorial supervision of Robert Stigler)

Reading this book, I learnt that how from the flowers, which were identified by the pollens found in the grave, it was possible to determine the burial month of an individual (p. 61).

In southwestern France in Upper Paleolithic times we have the appearance of two cultures, the Aurignacian and the Perigordian, which run almost side by side in the same region (p. 65). Solecki says that the Aurignacian is quite widespread there, through Turkey and the Zagros Mountains as far as Afghanistan (p. 65). Solecki further states that most probably 30, 000 years ago people entered Australia by boat (p. 68).

Perkins. Jr and Daly state that food production most probably began in the Near East in the Highland Zone (p. 72). The authors further state that the theory that the retreat of glaciers was assumed to have shifted the rain belts, causing increasing desiccation- seems to have numerous flaws( p. 74). As per these authors a domestic animal is one 'which breeds in captivity and is of significant economic importance' (p. 80).

Stigler writes that in the Near East the early stages of food production did indeed take place in such mostly upland country and only afterwards did Neolithic settlement  begin to fill  the alluvial valleys and lowland plains (p. 100). Stigler further writes that in Catal Huyuk the entrances were through the roofs which presented a blank façade to the outside world (p. 104). The author further writes that some old world archeologists sometimes refer the "Old Testament effect", which means 'attributing the appearance of any cultural innovation to an immigration of peoples from the outside' (p. 110).Ubaid in Southern Mesopotamia  has origins which are often attributed to a new people coming into the area from south western Iran (p. 114).

Writing on Egypt and India Stigler writes that 'the later dynastic written sources indicate that by Late Pre-dynastic times two parallels lineages of "kings" ruled Upper and Lower Egypt respectively' (p. 140). The author states that in India and Pakistan the links between Mesolithic and the Neolithic are still missing from the archeological record (p. 145). Stigler is of the view that the 'earliest date farming communities known to be of direct relevance to the subcontinent proper are located in Baluchistan' (p. 146). In addition to that the author writes that the site of Kile Gul Mohammad in the Quetta Valley of north-eastern Baluchistan is a cornerstone of the Baluchistan Neolithic, providing the earliest carbon-14 dates for the period in all of India-Pakistan' (p. 146). In geographical extent this was the largest of the four "primal" civilizations of the Old World- Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus, and China- stretching some thousand miles along the great alluvial river valley (p. 150).

This book covers plant domestication, sexual division of labor, deer-slayers in Germany and Poland, transition from hunter to townsman, hunting peoples, agrarian peoples, principal food animals (p. 75), definition of "civilization"(p. 116), historian Karl Wittfogel on irrigation (p. 117), Tasian burial practices and Walter Fairservis' views on first settlements in Baluchistan (p. 148).

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Book Review: Sex Slaves: The Trafficking of Women in Asia by Louise Brown

Louise Brown states that Japan forcefully recruited 100, 000 girls and women during World War II, as sex slaves. Most of them were Korean women (p. 8). She argues that prostitution is not just about poverty. It is a business founded upon all sorts of inequalities (p. 60). The author stresses that the sex slaves do not have a choice. They cannot resign because of poor working conditions and the unreasonable conduct of their employees and clients (p. 96). 

Writing about the whole sex business in Asia, the author writes that psychological conditioning is every bit as brutal as the physical coercion of girls and women into the trade. Sex workers are stripped of their previous identities and women who refuse are beaten, tortured and sometimes killed (p. 122). Companies in Japan treated their employees to annual sex tours to Korea, Thailand or the Philippines (p. 82). The author also establishes a link between the boom in the Cambodian sex industry and the 22,000 UN peace-keeping forces in the country during 1991-93 (p. 138).

Writing about the trends in South Asia, the author states Pakistan the internal trafficking of girls for prostitution is far more common than the trafficking of Bangladeshi, Indian and Afghani women (p. 63). The author mentions that the Japanese maybe the biggest spenders in the sex market but the Pakistanis are the biggest hypocrites (p. 152). Further in the book the author writes about the dominant mother complex, sadism in Japanese society, corruption in the Japanese immigration department, and the Japanese people (who consider themselves as the 'whites' of Asia).

As per the author, the Kandupatti brothel in Central Dhaka housed five hundred women and girls. It was established by the British during the colonial period (p. 166). The author also critiques the Sharia and considers it misogynist. Brown says that 'the institution of prostitution, the people who profit from it, and the men who enjoy it who deserve our unreserved condemnation (p. 246). In addition to that at another place the author stresses that 'prostitution has to be damned for the dehumanizing, woman-hating activity that it is (p. 255). She concludes that sex slaves are the intrinsic product of male-dominated Asian societies (p. 255). Both prostitution and traditional marriage can be interpreted as a continuation of a primitive form of human transaction whereby women exchange sex for food and protection (p. 129).

This book covers many stories from India, Pakistan, Burma, Japan, Nepal, China, Malaysia and Thailand. The author does not provide any detailed account of the connection between the institution of prostitution, colonized lands and the colonizers.

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