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3 - On the Streets and Beyond

Crowd Action and the Symbolic Appropriation of the Past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2020

Pouya Alimagham
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Summary

This chapter underscores the utility of a “history from below” approach. Crowd action dispels historical marginalization and state propaganda, making women and men—not states or powerful people—the central agents of history making, and allowing a more nuanced understanding of events. Studying the crowd enables the reader to understand the unique opportunity for mobilization presented by Iran’s 2009 presidential election. The disputed election results prompted a week-long uprising that provoked a crackdown by the state. The chapter outlines how one continuous uprising morphed into many, and how Iran’s political calendar was usurped by the uprising for renewed social movement activity, with the crowd co-opting some of the most politically charged days from Iran’s revolutionary past to evade the security climate and protest the state. Friday sermons, the anniversaries of the US embassy seizure and Ayatollah Beheshti’s assassination, and Student Day, along with revolution-era strategies of action, such as the night-time chants of “Allahu akbar,” all became part of the uprising’s repertoire.

Type
Chapter
Information
Contesting the Iranian Revolution
The Green Uprisings
, pp. 52 - 136
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • On the Streets and Beyond
  • Pouya Alimagham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Book: Contesting the Iranian Revolution
  • Online publication: 20 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108567060.004
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  • On the Streets and Beyond
  • Pouya Alimagham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Book: Contesting the Iranian Revolution
  • Online publication: 20 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108567060.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • On the Streets and Beyond
  • Pouya Alimagham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Book: Contesting the Iranian Revolution
  • Online publication: 20 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108567060.004
Available formats
×