Iran Between Tradition and Modernity

by Jahanbegloo, Ramin; Bahramitash, Roksana; Behdad, Sohrab; Behnam, Jamsheed; Dabashi, Hamid; Hashemi, Nader; Lotfalian, Mazyar; Ringer, Monica M.; Sadri, Ahmad; Siavoshi, Sussan; Tavakoli-Targhi, Mohamad; Tehranian, Majid; Vahdat, Farzin

• ISBN13: 9780739105290
• ISBN10: 0739105299
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-27
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

The Iranian Revolution represented to intellectuals and professionals the potential of spiritual values to triumph over the great power of economic imperialism. Yet out of this revolution has emerged an identity crisis that touches Islamic ideological heights and reaches down to the very ground of Islamic practice. The contributors to this collection, experts on Iranian cultural and political history, analyze the fragmented self of today's Iranian, refracted through that country's institutions, market forces, and modern thought. Each essay both deepens our understanding of contemporary Iran and adds to the broader discussion of the relationship between Islam and the West.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	ix
Ramin Jahanbegloo
Part I: Thinking Modernity
1 Iranian Society, Modernity, and Globalization	3	(12)
Jamshid Behnam
2 Keywords in Islamic Critiques of Technoscience: Iranian Postrevolutionary Interpretations	15	(10)
Mazyar Lotfalian
3 The Relevance of John Locke to Social Change in the Muslim World: A Comparison with Iran	25	(14)
Nader Hashetui
Part II: Theology and Modernity
4 Negotiating Modernity: Ulama and the Discourse of Modernity in Nineteenth-Century Iran	39	(12)
Monica M. Ringer
5 Mehdi Haeri Yazdi and the Discourse of Modernity	51	(20)
Farzin Vahdat
6 Utopia of Assassins: Nawab Safavi and the Fada'ian-e Estam in Prerevolutionary Iran	71	(24)
Sohrab Behdad
Part III: Intellectual Discourses of Modernity
7 Blindness and Insight: The Predicament of a Muslim Intellectual	95	(22)
Hamid Dabashi
8 The Varieties of Religious Reform: Public Intelligentsia in Iran	117	(12)
Ahmad Sadri
9 The Homeless Texts of Persianate Modernity	129
Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi
Part IV: Modernization, Gender, and Political Culture
10 Women's Employment in Iran: Modernization and Islamization	161	(8)
Roksana Bahramitash
11 "Islamist" Women Activists: Allies or Enemies?	169	(16)
Sussan Siavoshi
12 Power and Purity: Iranian Political Culture, Communication, and Identity	185	(22)
Majid Tehranian
Index	207	(8)
About the Editor and Contributors	215