Title:
So many similarities : linking domestic dissent to foreign threat in Iran
Authors:
Warnaar, M.
Place:
The Hague [etc.]
Publisher:
Hivos [etc.]
Year:
2011
Series Title:
Knowledge Programme Civil Society in West Asia Working Paper
Serial number:
20
PAGE:
18
ISSN:
2210-3473
Language:
eng
Subject:
Social and Political Change
Keywords:
government
,
policy
Abstract:
This paper offers an analysis of Iran’s hardline narrative about the 2009 events in general and the Green Movement in particular. This narrative dismisses domestic challenges to the regime as a product of Western interference. The paper shows that this narrative is a product not of simple paranoia, but an inherently consistent and thought through narrative based in existing understanding of Western meddling. The regime not only tries to defuse opposition by connecting it to a foreign threat, but also aims to justify the violence used against journalists, reformers and Green Movement activists by branding them as ‘agents of the West’. Whether the regime succeeds in selling their message to a broader Iranian public remains the question, and may partly rely on the availability of a counter-narrative from the side of the Greens.
Organization:
Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS)
,
University of Amsterdam (UvA)
Country:
Iran, Islamic Republic of
Region:
Southwest Asia
Category:
Research
Right:
© 2011 Hivos & University of Amsterdam
Document type:
Report
File:
222013.pdf