Ethical–Political Praxis: Social Justice and the Resistant Subject in Iran
01 Jan 2017-pp 145-163
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical review of some of the advantages and disadvantages of the human rights paradigm of the Iranian struggle for social justice through a close look at the jonbesh-e edalatkhai, the justice-seeking movement, as one of its manifestations is presented.
Abstract: By adopting the logos of human rights and appealing to the legal infrastructure of international institutions, the excluded Iranians have created a detour that accesses their native public space in spite of the Islamic state’s active denials and violent responses to their struggle. Informed by Arendt’s notion of politics as a project and Levinas’s notion of justice founded in the ethics of the other, this chapter essays a critical review of some of the advantages and disadvantages of the human rights paradigm of the Iranian struggle for social justice through a close look at the jonbesh-e edalatkhai, the justice-seeking movement, as one of its manifestations.
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TL;DR: In this paper , the mediated affective practices of #justiceseeking mothers in Iran, who campaign for justice for their children's deaths at the hands of the state, are analyzed, and they situate their melancholic performance of maternal mourning as central to the mediation of a 'wild' public intimacy, which contests the state's attempts to limit and foreclose the spaces of political appearance.
Abstract: This article analyses the mediated affective practices of the network of #justice-seeking mothers in Iran, who campaign for justice for their children’s deaths at the hands of the state. I situate their melancholic performance of maternal mourning as central to the mediation of a ‘wild’ public intimacy, which contests the state’s attempts to limit and foreclose the spaces of political appearance. This intimate public, I argue, draws on the affordances of visuality and hashtags on Instagram and Twitter to invoke expanded notions of ‘home’ and ‘motherhood’that affectively sustain its political activism. Recent feminist scholarship has emphasised the counter-hegemonic potentials of mourning practices that go beyond the patriarchal family as a reference point, especially in campaigns that seek justice for and recognition of the dead, whether these practices are offline or online. I argue, however, that attention to the ‘relational’ (cultural, social, physical) affordances of digital mourning in this case s reveals that grassroots maternalism may draw its emotional resources from a shifting combination of conventional (familial) and non-conventional forms of kinship. It is this fluid and provisional approach to emotional and political ties that enables the #justice-seeking mothers’ network to mobilise a variety of intimate registers in constructing an affective space of political appearance.
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Book•
01 Jan 1951
TL;DR: Essai philosophique en trois parties, the premiere sur lantisemitisme, the deuxieme sur l'imperialisme a la fin du XIXe s, the troisieme sur le totalitarisme stalinien et nazi as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Essai philosophique en trois parties, la premiere sur l'antisemitisme, la deuxieme sur l'imperialisme a la fin du XIXe s., la troisieme sur le totalitarisme stalinien et nazi
5,217 citations
01 Jan 1987
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define the philosophy of truth as "the search for truth" and define sciences too as the pursuit of truth, for from the philosophic eros, alive or dormant in them, they derive their noble passion.
Abstract: Every philosophy seeks truth. Sciences too can be defined by this search, for from the philosophic eros, alive or dormant in them, they derive their noble passion. If this definition seems too general and rather empty, it will, however, permit us to distinguish two directions the philosophical spirit takes, and this will clarify its physiognomy. These directions interact in the idea of truth.
98 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: Abrahamian compared Iran's public recantations to campaigns in Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, and the religious inquisitions of early modern Europe, citing the eerie resemblance in format, language, and imagery as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The role of torture in recent Iranian politics is the subject of Ervand Abrahamian's important and disturbing book. Although Iran officially banned torture in the early twentieth century, Abrahamian provides documentation of its use under the Shahs and of the widespread utilization of torture and public confession under the Islamic Republican governments. His study is based on an extensive body of material, including Amnesty International reports, prison literature, and victims' accounts that together give the book a chilling immediacy. According to human rights organizations, Iran has been at the forefront of countries using systematic physical torture in recent years, especially for political prisoners. Is the government's goal to ensure social discipline? To obtain information? Neither seem likely, because torture is kept secret and victims are brutalized until something other than information is obtained: a public confession and ideological recantation. For the victim, whose honor, reputation, and self-respect are destroyed, the act is a form of suicide. In Iran a subject's 'voluntary confession' reaches a huge audience via television. The accessibility of television and use of videotape have made such confessions a primary propaganda tool, says Abrahamian, and because torture is hidden from the public, the victim's confession appears to be self-motivated, increasing its value to the authorities. Abrahamian compares Iran's public recantations to campaigns in Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, and the religious inquisitions of early modern Europe, citing the eerie resemblance in format, language, and imagery. Designed to win the hearts and minds of the masses, such public confessions - now enhanced by technology - continue as a means to legitimize those in power and to demonize 'the enemy'.
96 citations