Skip to main content

The Left’s Contribution to Social Justice in Iran: A Brief Historical Overview

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Iran’s Struggles for Social Justice
  • 624 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter will trace the origin of modern Iran’s social justice projects to the contribution of a small internationally inspired social democratic movement during the 1906–1911 Constitutional Revolution. It will then argue Iran’s modern social justice agenda—that is, popular sovereignty, equal rights, regardless of gender, religion and ethnicity, and preventing labor’s exploitation—was primarily advocated and advanced by socialists and communists. Both the Pahlavi monarchy and the Islamic Republic borrowed their welfare state and populist programs directly from the Left. However, contemporary social justice agendas must go beyond traditional leftist paradigms toward the empowerment of subaltern groups and classes in grassroots alliances beyond nation-states, in transnational networks of locally autonomous polities democratically joined in regional and global confederate structures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abedini, Hassan. 1987. Sad sal dastan-nevisi dar Iran, Jeld 1 (One-Hundred Years of Fiction in Iran, Vol. 1). Tehran: Nashr-e Tondar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abrahamian, Ervand. 1982. Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Afary, Janet. 1996. The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bahar, Mohammad-Taqi. 1978. Tarikh-e mokhtasra-e ahzab-e sisai-e Iran (Concise History of Political Parties in Iran). Tehran: Ketabha-ye Jibi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behrooz, Maziar. 1999. Rebels with a Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran. London/New York: I.B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bookchin, Murray. 1982. The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy. Palo Alto, CA: Cheshire Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crone, Patricia. 2002. Roman, Provincial, and Islamic Law: The Origins of the Islamic Patronate. London/New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronin, Stephanie. 2010. Soldiers, Shahs and Subalterns in Iran: Opposition, Protest and Revolt, 1921–1941. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Eley, George. 2002. Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Europe. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ettehadieh, Mansureh. 2001. Peydayesh va tahavvole ahzab-e sisisi-ye mashrutiyat (Origins and Transformations of Constitutional Era Political Parties). Tehran: Gostareh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, Lynn. 2014. Writing History in the Global Era. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaveh. 1921a. Vol. 2, no. 3. Tehran. n.p.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1921b. Vol. 2, no. 3. Tehran. n.p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, Naomi. 2014. This Changes Everything: Capitalism v. the Climate. New York: Simon and Shuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malihi, Ali, et al. 2016. Estebdad-e monavvar (Enlightened Despotism). Andisheh Pooya 4(28): 55–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matin-asgari, Afshin. 2002. Iranian Student Opposition to the Shah. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2007. Modern Iran’s Ideological Renegades. Critique 16(3): 137–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. Iranian Modernity in Global Perspective: Nationalist, Marxist, and Authenticity Discourses. In From Orientalism to Post-colonialism: Asia, Europe, and the Lineages of Difference, ed. S. Mazumdar, V. Kaiwar, and T. Labia, 199–232. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012a. The Academic Debate on Iranian Identity. In Facing Others: Iranian Identity Boundaries and Modern Political Cultures, ed. A. Amanat, and F. Vejdani, 171–190. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012b. The Impact of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union on Qajar and Pahlavi Iran: Notes Toward a Revisionist Historiography. In Iranian-Russian Encounters: Empires and Revolutions since 1800, ed. S. Cronin, 11–46. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. The Berlin Circle: Iranian Nationalism Meets German Counter-modernity. In Modern Iranian Nationalism, ed. K. Scott-Aghaie, and A. Marashi, 49–66. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matin, Kamran. 2013. Recasting Iranian Modernity: International Relations and Social Change. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matin, Mahnaz, and Naser Mohajer. 2015. Peykar zan-e Irani baray-e dastyabi beh haq-e ra’y, 1320–1325 (The Struggles of Iranian Women to Achieve the Right to Vote, 1941–1946). Iran Nameh 30(3): 184–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meskub, Shahrokh. 1992. Ketab-e Morteza Keyvan (The Book of Morteza Keyvan). Tehran: Ketab-e Nader.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1994. Dastan-e adabiyat va sargozasht-e ejtema (The Story of Literature and Society). Tehran: Farzan Ruz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Richard. 1989. Rawls and Marxism. In Reading Rawls: Critical Studies on Rawls’ “A Theory of Justice”, ed. N. Daniels, 206–230. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nekuruh, Mahmud. 1997. Nehzat-e khodparastan-e sosyalist (Movement of God-worshipping Socialists). Tehran: Chapakhsh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pogge, Thomas. 1989. Realizing Rawls. Ithaca, NY: Cornel University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ——— (ed). 2004. Global Justice. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qazi, Mohammad. 1994. Sargozasht-e tarjomeh-ye man (The Story of My Translations). Tehran: Nashr-e Ravayat.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahnama, Ali. 1998. An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Sharati. London: I.B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1993. Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1999. The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2001. Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Edited by E. Kelly Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skjaervo, Prods Oktor. 2012. Avestan Society. In The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History, ed. T. Daryaee, 88–91. New York and London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taqizadeh, Seyyed Hassan. 1959. Khatabeh-e aqa-ye Seyyed Hassan Taqizadeh (Addresses of Mr. Seyyed Hassan Taqizadeh). Tehran: Mehregan.

    Google Scholar 

  • The International Forum for Social Development. 2006. Social Justice in an Open World: The Role of the United Nations. New York: The United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tusi, Nasir al-din. 1964. The Nasserian Ethics. Translated by G. M. Wickens. London: George Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vahabzadeh, Peyman. 2010. A Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation in Iran, 1971–1979. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yavari, Neguin. 2014. Advice for the Sultan: Prophetic Voices and Secular Politics in Medieval Islam. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Matin-asgari, A. (2017). The Left’s Contribution to Social Justice in Iran: A Brief Historical Overview. In: Vahabzadeh, P. (eds) Iran’s Struggles for Social Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44227-3_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44227-3_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44226-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44227-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics