Ghahramani, 20, an Iranian student, was swept off the streets of Tehran and taken to the notorious Evin prison, where criminals and political dissidents were held side by side in conditions of legendary brutality. Her crime, she asserts, was sliding back her headscarf to feel the sun on her hair. This led to a political activism fueled by the fearless idealism of the young. Her parents begged her to be prudent, but even they could not have imagined...

"When Iranians overthrew their monarchy, rejecting a pro-Western shah in favor of an Islamic regime, many observers predicted that revolutionary turmoil would paralyze the country for decades to come. Yet forty years after the 1978-79 revolution, Iran has emerged as a critical player in the Middle East and the wider world, as demonstrated in part by the 2015 international nuclear agreement. In Iran Rising, Iran specialist Amin Saikal describes how...

"With U.S.-Iran relations at a thirty-year low, Iranian-American writer Hooman Majd dared to take his young family on a year-long sojourn in Tehran. 'The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay' traces their domestic adventures and closely tracks the political drama of a terrible year for Iran's government. It was an "annus horribilis" for Iran's Supreme Leader. The Green Movement had been crushed, but the regime was on edge, anxious lest democratic...

Despite the relative calm apparent in Iran today there is unmistakable evidence of political social and cultural ferment stirring beneath the surface. The authors of Politics and Culture in Contemporary Iran, a unique group of scholars activists and artists explore that unrest and its challenge to the legitimacy and stability of the present authoritarian regime. Ranging from political theory to music from human rights law to social media their contributions...

The regime in Tehran, traditionally ruled by the Shia clergy, is transforming into a military dictatorship dominated by the officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The rise of the IRGC is bound to challenge the interests of the United States in the Middle East and beyond. The author uses rarely studied sources from the Persian-language press to reveal how the IRGC officers have risen to power in Iran and the impact of the Islamic...

A riveting, heart-wrenching memoir of Maziar Bahari's brutal interrogation in Iran's most notorious prison, offering insight into Iran's turbulent recent past and uncertain future.

Iranian politics has been marked by sharp ideological divisions and infighting. These divides, kept largely out of public view until the 1990s, came to greater light with the contested 2009 presidential elections. To explain the diverse and complex forces that led to this event and that animate Iran's current fractured society and polity, author Shireen T. Hunter looks beyond the battle between the forces of reform and reaction, democracy and dictatorship,...

"This book analyzes the impact of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and explores Ayatollah Khomeini's role in shaping the evolution of Iran's political system. Iran: The Legacy of the Islamic Revolution delves into the political perspectives guiding Ayatollah Khomeini and his supporters in the formation of a utopian Shiite Islamic society. This idealistic society eventually clashed with the demands of the modern world and the aspirations and expectations...