MERIP
Media Resource List, June 15, 2005
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topic:
- Iranian presidential elections, June 17
(For background on the Iranian political scene, see the Winter
2004 issue of Middle East Report . http://www.merip.org/mer/mer233/mer233.html
.)
ARANG KESHAVARZIAN
Arang Keshavarzian is spending the summer in Iran. He is assistant
professor in the Department of Political Science at Concordia
University, Montreal, Canada where he teaches Middle East
politics and comparative politics. He conducts research and
publishes on issues related to ulama-state relations, the
Tehran bazaar and economic policies.
FARIDEH FARHI
Farideh Farhi is an independent scholar and affiliate graduate
faculty at University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Her publications
include States and Urban-Based Revolutions in Iran and
Nicaragua (University of Illinois Press, 1990) as well
as numerous articles and book chapters on comparative analysis
of revolutions and contemporary Iranian politics and foreign
policy. She said today: "Post-revolutionary trends in Iran
make the struggle for gradual reform very real and its objectives
realizable. But often ignored in discussions of Iran is the
fact that opponents of reform are not merely in control of
many non-elective government organs but also have political
and institutional resources for shaping public opinion. Therefore,
support for the status quo does have a degree of social support.
There is a tendency to talk about the 'people of Iran' as
though they move in herds. In sequence, they are all revolutionaries,
fundamentalists, reformists, dissatisfied reformists and now
people with democratic aspirations. The reality is that Iran
is a multi-dimensional and multi-layered society with many
interests and dividing lines, including the often forgotten
urban-rural or large-small city divide."
KAVEH EHSANI
Kaveh Ehsani is a research scholar at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
He is on the editorial boards of Middle East Report
and Goft-o-gu (Dialogue) journal in Iran. He is
the author, most recently, of "Social Engineering and the
Contradictions of Modernization in Khuzestan's Company Town,"
International Review of Social History (2003), "High
Stakes for Iran," Middle East Report (Summer 2003)
and "Neo-Conservatives, Hardline Clerics and the Bomb," with
Chris Toensing, Middle East Report (Winter 2004).
He commented today: "Although it is projected that only half
of the electorate will vote, the outcome of presidential elections
in Iran is very significant, both domestically as well as
internationally. It is likely the election will go to a second
round. However, no matter which candidate is elected, the
process of this election has stirred up very important political
realignments which had been taboo -- from increasingly bold
civil disobedience to the emergence of common fronts between
regime reformers and opposition forces. What is certain is
that Iran's complicated, but pioneering march toward democracy
in the Middle East is continuing."
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