The Legacy of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran: A Hundred Years of Struggle For Democracy
Lecture Series - Introduction
9-23 May 2006
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Russell Square, London
A lecture series that looks at the ever-present tensions between religiosity and secularism, and between despotism and democracy in Iran's quest for modernity during the last 100 years.
Organised by
Iran Heritage Foundation & London Middle East Institute at SOAS.
Convenor
Introduction
The birth of modern Iran is often dated to the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-11. The constitutional movement brought together a wide range of different elements: merchants and clerics, reformist Muslim intellectuals, secular liberals and nationalists. The aim they shared, if on differing grounds, was to limit the despotism of the monarch through a constitution, an elected legislature and an independent judiciary. These democratic aims were achieved, but their effectiveness was heavily circumscribed in subsequent decades, notably by the despotism of the Pahlavi regime and the 1953 coup that brought down the democratic experiment of Dr Mosaddeq. In 1978-79, a second revolution with broadly similar aims swept away the monarchy and brought the clerics to power in an Islamic Republic.
In both revolutions, national independence, democracy and rule of law were central demands, and the aftermath has been a persistence of two universal tensions in the movement to modernity: between religiosity and secularism, and between despotism and democracy. In 2006, the centenary of the 1906 Constitutional Revolution provides an opportunity to re-examine these unresolved tensions and the debates around them that began in the nineteenth century and continue to shape the Iran of the twenty-first century. The five lectures in this series look back at past experiences and revisit old debates in the light of new social and political realities.
Admission free
Programme
For abstracts of lectures and biographies of speakers, click on the title of lectures and name of speakers respectively.
9 May - 7pm - Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre
Reflections on Modern Iranian History
Fred Halliday - London School of Economics
12 May - 7pm - Khalili Lecture Theatre
The Role of Night Pamphlets and Newspapers in One Hundred Years Struggle for Freedom
Massoud Behnoud - Independent Scholar
17 May - 7pm - Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre
Can Theocracy and Democracy be Reconciled? Ayatollah Na'ini's Proposals on Iranian Constitutionalism and their Relevance
Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari
23 May - 7pm - Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre
The Ideological Crisis of Nationalism and Islam: from the Constitutional Revolution until Today
Daryoush Ashouri - Independent Scholar