IRAN - A PARADOXAL WORLD

Since the  Islamic Republic was established in February 1979, following the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy by the partisans of Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran has been troubling the West. At first, from the point of view of the "so very tolerant" North, it was a revealing sign of the inevitable "clash of civilisations" between Islam and Christianity. The 9/11 attacks, together with the affirmation by the Iranian government of its nuclear ambitions, have over the past few years led to the emergence of a new concept: "the conflict of civilisations". So much so that one could legitimately wonder if Iran's destiny is just to be a threat to democracy for the "civilised world". Anyway, leaving these civilisational obsessions and hysterical debates about the Iranian devil aside, what do we know about this country? Neither praising nor dumbing down its subject, this book of Marie-Ladier Fouladi, one of the rare specialists on Iranian society, seeks to offer us something to read outside the usual strong lines of opinion. Drawing on surveys she conducted on the spot in 2002 and 2004 and also on censuses and data from diverse local socio-demographic surveys, she bears witness to the complexity of a post-revolutionary and post-Islamic fundamentalist society in great turmoil. She shows, for example, that women who were major participants in the 1979 revolution have not since left the public arena. On the contrary, they have never ceased redefining their roles in Iranian society , claiming their female rights and contesting laws and traditions together with religious interpretations biased against women. At a time when Iran is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution, this work gives us the means to understand this State in which we have difficulty assessing the changes it has experienced through the effect of paradoxical modernisation: despite the severity of political Islam, Iranian society at last appears incredibly dynamic.