MERIP Reports no. 86, March/April 1980. Cover photo by Behzad Touhidi.MERIP Reports no. 87, May 1980. Cover photo by Dorothy Grant. MER Article MERIP’s First Decade of Iran Coverage from Political Challenge to Revolution MERIP’s coverage of Iran from the organization’s founding in 1971 up through the 1979 revolution and the early years of post-revolutionary state formation remain an invaluable resource for understanding and teaching the history of Iran’s long 1970s. MERIP writers in this period were grappling with the meaning Naghmeh Sohrabi • 8 min read
Current Analysis Lessons Learned (and Ignored) On May 23, 1997, Mohammad Khatami, who had spent most of the 1990s as head of the National Library, defeated Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, the speaker of Parliament, to become president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The election was a turning point in post-revolutionary history—the underdog beat the Naghmeh Sohrabi, Arang Keshavarzian • 19 min read
Current Analysis On the Eve of Iran's Presidential Elections After waiting for an hour under the hot sun, sometimes excitedly and sometimes impatiently, to hear President Mohammad Khatami speak, halfway through his speech the crowd began heading for the exits of Tehran's Shirudi Stadium. Both local and foreign media commentators took the mass exit as further proof Naghmeh Sohrabi, Arang Keshavarzian • 4 min read
