What Is the Secret Weapon of the Reform Movement?

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Reformers in this period, or at least the more radical wing, was actually sort of mobilised from below. So, you mobilise your base from below in order to basically negotiate from one high or above. And I guess one of the fundamental kind of deficiencies of the reformer strategies is that they really didn't trust and reach out to minorities and women's movement. It was just always very conservative with a small C in terms of its willingness to reach out to extra parliamentary forces,. Those who don't necessarily have a media or to find place within the institutions of the Islamic Republic to mobilise them for leverage.

Featuring Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi and Golnar Nikpour on the history of modern Iran. This is the fifth and final episode in what is now a FIVE-part series. We begin this episode in 1997, with reformist cleric Mohammad Khatami’s surprise landslide election to the presidency. Then we cover the reformists running into hardliner repression and George W. Bush's War on Terror, the 2005 election of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his 2009 reelection and Green Movement protests, Hassan Rouhani and the nuclear accord that Trump then tore up, the 2019 mass working-class protests, and the election (but really more coronation) of right-winger Ebrahim Raisi. We end with the death of Zhina Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police and the current mass protest movement that erupted in response. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out our vast archives and the rest of this series at thedigradio.com Buy Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win by Helen Shiller haymarketbooks.org/books/1952-daring-to-struggle-daring-to-win