Director of the Iranian History Initiative @lsehistory. Author of 'Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah' and editor of 'The Age of Aryamehr'.
Jan 3, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
1) Mohammad Reza Shah was an Iranian man of his generation. Yet, he was the first Shah to abandon polygamy, to crown the Shahbanou, and to give her a constitutional role. Women could veil or unveil as they wished. Women gained the right to vote in 1963. ...
2) Family planning was introduced in 1967 and abortion was legalised in 1973. The Family Protection Acts of 1967 and 1975 abolished extrajudicial divorce, greatly limited polygamy, and enhanced mothers' rights to custody of their children. These laws were abrogated in 1979.
Oct 18, 2022 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
In my piece for @ForeignPolicy, I argue that the 2022 uprising in Iran is a chance for the UK and US to redeem themselves for the 1953 coup. A 🧵 on the spectre of Mosaddeq and our current moment: #MahsaAmini#IranRevoIution2022#زن_زندگی_آزادی foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/18/a-c…
As diplomats on both sides of the Atlantic struggle to make sense of the national uprising that has erupted in Iran over the last four weeks, a debate is raging among them as to how Britain and the United States should respond to these protests.
Oct 9, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Do yourself a favour and go and see 'Rebel Rebel', Soheila Sokhanvari's exhibition at the @BarbicanCentre of stunning portraits of Iranian women who were cultural icons of the Pahlavi era. Her work could not be more timely. #PahlaviStudies barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2022/…
Forugh Farrokhzad, perhaps the most important modernist poet of her generation, and coincidentally a fellow Tafreshi.
Sep 29, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
What does the experience of the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution suggest about the 2022 #IranRevolution? A few points in this thread. #MahsaAmini#مهسا_امينى1) The Shah's regime did not fall overnight. The revolution played out from late 1977 to early 1979. There were many ups and downs and even periods of total calm, punctuated by mass protests. Don't expect the Islamic Republic to fall so quickly.
Sep 22, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
As the uprising in Iran continues, what can we say about this explosion of outrage at the murder of #Mahsa_Amini? Like the death of Mohamed Bouazizi or George Floyd, her murder has touched a raw nerve of anger in Iran with the injustices of the Islamic Republic. A thread:
Firstly, the issue of forced veiling has become the lightening rod of opposition to the Islamic Republic and the burning of the hijab is a symbolic rejection of theocracy and a demand for secular state that does not interfere in the private lives of Iranian women and men.
Jun 18, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
1/ This presidential election is the Islamic Republic's 'Rastakhiz' moment. Just as the Shah's creation of a one-party-state in 1975 is seen in retrospect as the high-point of his authoritarianism and a grave mistake, so too will this election come to haunt the Islamic Republic.
2/ The creation of the Rastakhiz Party in 1975 was, bizarrely, an attempt to institutionalise the Shah's rule and create a space for loyal dissent and discussion within the regime. Similarly, the Islamic Republic has drawn the red lines of dissent to preclude any real reform.
