| Summary/Abstract |
Iran’s 1979 Revolution was accomplished with the participation of a wide range of actors and social groups, with a wide range of motivations and visions for the future. How did the revolution become an ‘Islamic’ revolution? This article revisits the Islamic Republican Party’s print publications in the formative period of the Islamic Republic (1979-81) to explore one element of this process: the ideological framing of Marxist competitors. In the pages of Jumhuri Islami and other semi-official publications, they framed the Feda’in and Mojahedin as ‘ sharqzade ’ (‘eastoxicated’) counterparts to the Shah’s ‘ gharbzade ’ (‘westoxicated’) regime. Authors used two main discursive strategies: painting Marxist groups as possessing an eclectic, materialist ideology at odds with Iranian culture, and as modern counterparts to the ‘hypocrites’ ( monafeqin ) who opportunistically turned against the Prophet Mohammad in Medina. Revolutions are processes, with social groups forming and mobilizing resources to shape their outcomes. Historicizing the ‘Islamic’ nature of the revolution as part of the revolutionary process remains critical for debates over its meanings and legacies more than forty years later.
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