Fada'i Guerrilla Praxis in Iran, 1970 - 1979: Narratives and Reflections on Everyday Life

by Touraj Atabaki (Editor), Nasser Mohajer (Editor), Siavush Randjbar-Daemi (Editor)

Overview

The Iranian People's Fada'i Guerrillas have received little dedicated scholarly investigation in the shadow of the Iranian Revolution. This unique collection combines scholarly analysis of the movement, with first-hand accounts from those within the movement, in order to shed light on the experiences, organisation and history of this group during the 1970's.

The volume is partly composed of eyewitness accounts from veteran Fada'i members on themes such as everyday life in safehouses, the activities of the small but active Fada'i representation abroad, the experience of Fada'i men and women who were subject to long imprisonment in the 1970s or perspectives on military organisation.
Alongside these accounts are scholarly investigations into the various aspects in the history of the organisation, which cover elements such as its ideological foundations and political orientation, the importance of the Iranian labour movement in Fada'i thought and praxis and the impact of guerrilla activism in the arts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780755638871
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/29/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Touraj Atabaki is Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History and Professor Emeritus of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

Nasser Mohajer is an independent scholar of modern Iranian history. He studied Sociology in the United States and History and Economics in France.

Siavush Randjbar-Daemi is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews, UK.
Touraj Atabaki is Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History and Professor Emeritus of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at Leiden University. Atabaki studied theoretical physics and later history at the University of London and Utrecht University. Following positions at Utrecht University and the University of Amsterdam, he joined Leiden University where he held the Chair of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia.
Atabaki's research encompasses historiography, social history of labour and subaltern studies in Twentieth century Iran, the Ottoman Empire and Turkey as well as the Caucasus and Central Asia. His forthcoming publications are: Social History of the Iranian Oil Industry (Cambridge University Press) and Fallen in the Whirlwind: Life and Time of Iranian Migrant Labour and Political Activists during the Soviet Great Purge (Cambridge University Press). Atabaki's major publications and research projects can be found on:
https://socialhistory.org/en/staff/touraj-atabaki
Nasser Mohajer is an independent scholar of modern Iranian history. He studied Sociology in the United States and History and Economics in France. He currently resides in Paris, is on the editorial board of Nogteh Books and works with Nogteh Resources on Iran (http://www.noghteh.org). He is the former editor in chief of two periodicals on Iranian politics and culture: Aghazi Now (1985-1994) and Noghteh (1995-1999). He served on the editorial board of the periodicals, Noghteh Review (1995-1997) and Iran Bulletin (1992-2000), which covered Iranian history and culture. He has authored and edited Voices of a Massacre : Untold Stories of Life and Death in Iran, 1988 (OneWorld, 2020) and The Uprising of Iranian Women, March 1979, 2 Vols., co-authored with Mahnaz Matin, (Noghteh Books, 2013). His articles have been published in numerous journals, including Annals of the Iranian Women's Studies Foundation, Arash, Azadi, Baha'i Studies Review, Bukhara, Baran, Ceshmandaz, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Daftarha-ye Kanun, Iran Namag, and Iran Nameh. He has taught courses and given lectures on aspects of modern Iranian history.
Siavush Randjbar-Daemi is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He was previously Lecturer in Iranian History at the University of Manchester. He specialises in the political history of Iran since 1941, with a current emphasis on the Left and periods of political diversity, particularly 1941-1953 and 1977-1981. He is the author of the The Quest for Authority in Iran: A History of the Presidency from Revolution to Rouhani (I.B. Tauris, 2018).

Table of Contents

1-Introduction

2-Mehrdad Vahabi And Nasser Mohajer
Foundations And Path Of Thought Of The Iranian People's Fada'i Guerrillas

3-Touraj Atabaki
Labour Movement In Words And Deeds Of Iranian People Fada'i Guerrillas

4-Heydar Tabrizi
The Foreign Relations Of The Organisation Of Iranian People's Fada'i Guerrillas: From Formation Until The Iranian Revolution Of 1979

5-Majid Abdolrahimpour
A Glance At The Organisation Of The Iran People's Fada'i Guerrillas (1976-1979)

6-Marzieh Tohidast Shafi'
From School To Safehouse: An Account From A Woman Fada'i

7-Nahid Qajar
My Beloved Organisation

8-Roqiyeh Daneshgari
Female Prison

9-Nasser Rahimkhani And Nasser Mohajer
Organization Of The Iranian Peoples Fada'i Guerrillas' Prison Organisation

10-Sorour Ali Mohammadi
The Organisation Of Iranian People's Fada'i Guerrillas And The University Of Tabriz: A Personal Memoir

11-Ali Nadimi
Confederation Of Iranian Students (National Union) And The Guerrillas

12-Siavush Randjbar Daemi
From Mehrabad-E Jonoubi To The Technical Faculty

13-Saeed Yousef
Poetry Praising Passion

14-Nasim Khaksar
Reflections Of The Guerrilla Struggle And The Siyahkal Incident In Literary Prose And Fiction

15-Esfadiar Monfaredzadeh
Looking Back

16-Houman Azarkolah
The Shadow Of The Guerrilla Movement On Theatre

Editorial Reviews

Weaving together scholarly narratives with memoirs and reflections by women and men active in 1970s Iran's guerrilla movement. This book reconstructs the lived experience of a political generation whose heroic exploits and tragic mistakes helped pave the way for a revolution that destroyed them along with the dictatorship they fought.” —Professor Afshin Matin-Asgari, California State University, USA

“A unique collection to detail the endurance of women and men in the guerrilla movement in the 1970s in Iran. The rich historical theorization of this movement frames the personal narratives; thus, the book brings to life the story of the left beyond Iran into the transnational context of revolutionary resistance movements.” —Shahrzad Mojab, Professor, University of Toronto, Canada

From the Publisher