There is a new revolution brewing in Iran. It is not a political revolution, although it was caused by one. And it is not necessarily an economic or cultural revolution, although its consequences certainly reach into both economics and culture. It is a revolution of ideas, a mostly silent contest over the very meaning and essence of Iranian identity, and, more importantly, where Iran and Iranians ought to go from here. Amid all the chaos and turmoil it caused, the Iranian revolution of 1978–79 has unleashed a far more subtle and complex, and quiet, revolution, a revolution in the Iranians' views of themselves, their surrounding world, its meaning, and its essence.

This silent – and at times not-so-silent – revolution has been underway for over two decades now and is being fought over three principal, romanticized identities: an identity rooted in traditionalist conceptions of Islam; another inspired by Islamic reformism; and a third in which neither Islam nor the weight of tradition should encumber the quest for modernity. The intellectual quest to define – or, more accurately, show the path to – an idealized identity, and the resulting contest that has been unleashed in the process, has given rise to three broad discourses in today's Iran. This book looks at each discourse, how and why it came about, what the discourse argues, and, ultimately, where it might be headed. Context, as we shall see shortly, is crucially determinative of a discourse's rise and spread, and the book will also examine the broader contexts within which each of the three contemporary discourses are being articulated.