The elections to the fourth session of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) were generally considered as the beginning of the end of factional politics in Iran. The typical journalistic analysis of Iranian politics, emphasizing the existence of two “moderate” and “radical” factions on the Iranian political scene, concluded that the “moderate” forces, led by President Hashemi Rafsanjani, had inflicted a decisive blow on the “radical” faction and neutralized the Majlis (which had been controlled by the radicals in its third session) as an impediment to the president's plan for reconstruction of the economy. Soon after the convening of the Fourth Majlis, however, the legislature challenged the authority of the Rafsanjani government either by initiating legislative bills to limit the authority of the president or by shelving the bills introduced by the government.
By the time of his death in 2009, the Grand Ayatollah Montazeri was lauded as the spiritual leader of the Green movement in Iran. Since the 1960s, when he supported Ayatollah Khomeini's opposition to the Shah, Montazeri's life reflected the crucial political shifts within Iran. In this book, Sussan Siavoshi presents the historical context as well as Montazeri's own political and intellectual journey. Siavoshi highlights how Montazeri, originally a student of Khomeini became one of the key figures during the revolution of 1978–9. She furthermore analyses his subsequent writings, explaining how he went from trusted advisor to and nominated successor of Khomeini to an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic. Examining Montazeri's political thought and practice as well as the historical context, Siavoshi's book is vital for those interested in post-revolutionary Iran and the phenomenon of political Islam.
The evolution of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the dynamics of the relationship between the Iranian state and society can be explored by examining the postrevolutionary regime's policies toward intellectuals, particularly as expressed in its regulation of cinema and book publication. This relationship—at least in the period from the early 1980s to the early 1990s—was complex and nuanced. Factionalism within the regime provided an opportunity for intellectuals to engage the state in a process of negotiation and protest, cooperation and defiance, in pushing the boundaries of permitted self-expression. The degree of their success depended in part on which faction controlled the government and its regulatory agencies during particular phases in the evolution of the postrevolutionary regime.
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