Round-the-clock Revolution of 1979: Competitive Narratives of the Arab Spring in Iran

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Discourse, Framing, and the State

Abstract

The Arab revolts or the so-called Arab Spring have disturbed social movement scholars and policy makers alike. These revolts came to fruition about two years after the emergence of the Iranian Green Movement of June, 2009. Ironically, Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, stepped down one night before the 33th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since then, Iranian activists, intellectuals, and political figures from far right to far left have framed the Arab revolts based upon their divergent political dispositions and agendas. While the establishment-with the exception of the Ahmadinejad’s circle- has proposed that the Arab revolts have been inspired by the Islamic Revolution as well as Iranian Resistance to the American/Zionist imperialism, the Iranian Green opposition has claimed that it was the Green Movement that inspired the Arab revolts. Drawing upon the Iranian media and based on the narrative analysis, I examine the divergent attitudes within Iranian elites, and propose that both sides although inherently divergent, keep trying to reframe and rehash the Islamic Revolution. It seems that for both sides the Islamic Revolution is ever-enduring revolution, and it is not going to stop any time soon. Although this study contributes to the idea of continuity of revolutions, it could open some research avenues for frame analysis; elite fragmentation; ethnocentrism studies; and factional politics.

Author

• Amirhossein Teimouri