Politics of Honor and Tragedy in Iran: Reflections from Popular Iranian Films and TV Series

Why does political life in Iran feel so deeply tragic—despite the country’s abundant resources, youthful population, and rich cultural history? In this groundbreaking book, Mahdi Ahouie explores how the cultural ideal of honor (ezzat) has come to dominate Iranian political imagination, fueling a tragic pattern of defiance, resistance, and unresolved suffering that shapes both domestic experience and foreign policy.

Bridging psychoanalytic theory with cultural analysis, Ahouie draws on the wo...