Tomorrow night at Columbia in New York, a star-studded panel is gathering to discuss the democracy movement in Iran and across the Middle East.
Iran’s Green Movement & the Upheaval in the Middle East: A Panel Discussion Hamid Dabashi · Ervand Abrahamian · Nader Hashemi · Golbarg Bashi · Danny Postel
Dabashi is an accomplished humanist scholar famous from the smear campaign against him that failed. Abrahamian is an expert on Iran, who published a pioneering piece on Iran at the height of the neocon infusion. Hashemi is a leading young scholar of secularism and democracy in Islamic societies (and my friend). Bashi is an impressive feminist scholar. Hashemi and Postel put together this interesting book, The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future, to which all panelists contributed.
From the flyer for the event:
This Friday · February 25 · 6:00 PM Columbia University · 501 Schermerhorn
The Green Movement has once again made its presence felt on Iran’s streets. What does this reappearance of the movement mean for the future of the Islamic Republic, and how does “Iran’s resilient rebellion” relate to the wave of uprisings roiling the Middle East?
The momentous anthology The People Reloaded provides an intellectual and political road map to this turning point in Iran’s history and a vital resource for the study of Iran, social movements, and the future of the Middle East.
“In bringing together these essential texts from and about Iran’s Green movement, Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel have opened the door for critical engagement with one of the most significant movements in the Middle East today.” —Orhan Pamuk
“This anthology on the Iranian Green Movement is the most impressive collection of writings on one of the most inspiring and democratic movements of our time. This volume is a rare resource for anyone who is interested in the understanding of post-Islamist social movements.” —Ali Mirsepassi, NYU
“Words, yes, words and justice and bodies–that’s all the Iranian human earthquake called the Green Movement has had on its side from the start of is peaceful insurrection. The bodies have been beaten and jailed and persecuted and the justice is a long time coming, but the words, the indispensable words that have always been at the heart of that country’s history, the words are finally available in one crucial and moving and thought-provoking book.” —Ariel Dorfman
“The People Reloaded plunges is into a defining conflict of modern political history: how nonviolent democratic resistance might succeed in the face of a repressive regime. Defeat often seems inevitable and change never seems to come fast enough. And then, all of a sudden, the dam bursts, time accelerates and nothing can stop it. This welcome volume provides an anatomy of how this process is unfolding in Iran today, whatever its eventual outcome.” —Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research
