Drawing upon a wealth of original field research, the authors challenge conventional wisdom and simplistic media stereotypes about the Islamic Republic. The chapters reach beyond traditional images of the country to show that, as a consequence of thirty years of economic and social changes, the reality, or ‘essence’, of contemporary Iran is more complex and nuanced than is often portrayed in the international media. Offering valuable insights into Iran’s economic and social policies, as well as its politics, since the Islamic Revolution, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, sociology, and Iranian studies.
Eric Hooglund is Senior Research Scholar in Contemporary Interpretations of Islam at the Center for Middle East Studies, Lund University, Sweden, and Editor of Middle East Critique.
Leif Stenberg is the Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University.