Iranians Debate Combating ISIL & Defending Kurds/ Kurdish Women

The urgent need to combat the onslaught of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), and the fact that the Kurds are being seen as a democratic bulwark against ISIL, has led to some important debates among Iranians. These debates concern the struggles of the Middle East region’s Kurdish national minority and Kurdish women in particular.

 

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Iranians Discuss Nancy Fraser’s and Women of Color’s Critiques of Feminism

Nancy Fraser’s recent article, “How Feminism Became Capitalism’s Handmaiden and How to Reclaim It”  has led to some interesting discussions among Iranian women and men inside Iran and in exile.  In her article, Fraser argues that the second wave of feminism has abandoned its original ideal of social justice and has been co-opted by capitalist careerism.

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Responding to the Rouhani Administration’s Executions of Ethnic Minority Prisoners

With the latest nuclear agreement between the Iranian government and six world powers, which reduces the threat of foreign military intervention and  lightens severe sanctions,  Iranians can now focus on their country’s internal problems. At the same time, the Rouhani administration’s latest executions of ethnic minority prisoners reveal that the regime wishes to stir up hatred against national minorities to deflect attention from Iran’s deep class, gender and ethnic inequities.

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Iranian Intellectuals Break Taboos Concerning Bahais, Israel

Mohammad Nourizad and Mohsen Makhmalbaf are both filmmakers.  Both were active supporters of the Iranian regime but later turned against the regime and became ardent advocates of human rights.  Now they have openly broken with another feature of their past:  prejudice against religious minorities.

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Analyses of 2013 Iranian Presidential Election

Persian and English-language analyses which have attempted to comprehend these events have ranged from a dismissal of the election process as a completely engineered one,  to uncritical support for the election results.   Among the many analyses which I have read,   I have found the Persian-language analyses by Mohammad Nourizad and Mohammad Reza Nikfar to be the most thoughtful.

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