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Revolutionary Politics of the Normal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2024
Extract
The “longing for a normal life,” (hasrat-i yik zindigi-yi ma'muli) as lyricized in what became the Woman, Life, Freedom (Zan, Zendegi, Azadi) movement's favorite anthem, has been front and center in the recent wave of social protests that has rocked Iran from September 2022 onward.1 At the same time, the movement's frame has been crystal clear in aiming for the rarest and most disruptive of social events—a revolution. Revolutions never foster normalcy; neither do they comfortably settle into something “normal” in their later phases. Whatever normal is, it is quite certainly not the authoritarian rule into which most social revolutions have historically lapsed. Can the pursuit of normalcy be revolutionary in any sense? In this essay I analyze the central role of normalcy in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and discuss how it helps us understand the movement's past and imagine its potential revolutionary futures. I first allude to the struggle of some Iranians to find a semblance of normalcy under abnormal circumstances in past decades, and suggest that Mahsa (Zhina) Amini's death determined the futility of this struggle for normalcy in the minds of many Iranians. I then analyze what it means for the movement to strive for “a normal life” and a revolution at the same time.
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References
1 Zuzanna Olszewska, “An Anthem from the Iranian Protests,” Middle East Report Online, 4 October 2022, https://merip.org/2022/10/an-anthem-from-the-iranian-protests. Roughly one year later, the movement is still alive in the form of civil disobedience (specifically, women defying the mandatory hijab), occasional and small gatherings and demonstrations, and online activism. The government's extensive and ruthless campaign of withholding civil services, shutting down businesses, policing the streets, arrests and kidnappings, and unjust prosecutions in the past few months has done little to change the new status quo.
2 Bayat, Asef, “The Making of Post-Islamist Iran,” in Post-Islamism, the Changing Faces of Political Islam, ed. Bayat, Asef (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2013)Google Scholar.
3 Khosrow Parsa, “The Iranian Uprising: A Synopsis,” trans. Arash Davari, Spectre, 1 May 2023.
4 Bayat, Asef, Revolutions without Revolutionaries: Making Sense of the Arab Spring (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017)Google Scholar.
5 Ebrahim Tofiq and Seyedmehdi Yousefi, “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi: Inqilab-i Milli ya Inqilab-i Mardom,” Naqd-i Iqtisad-i Siyasi, 21 December 2022, https://pecritique.com/2022/12/21/%D8%B2%D9%86-%D8%B2%D9%86%D8%AF%DA%AF%DB%8C-%D8%A2%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%82%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%85%D9%84%DB%8C-%DB%8C%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%82%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%85.
6 Under the leadership of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi, the Mojahedin-e Khalgh Organization (MEK) was an expansive resistance organization active against the Pahlavi government. Mostly repressed prior to the 1979 revolution, the Mojahedin regained power in the short period of political freedom following 1979, but they were quickly presented as the Islamic Republic's number one domestic enemy and pronounced illegal in 1981, pushing them to life in exile. Due both to their organizational presence and Iranian government propaganda, the MEK and Rajavis have been well-known political actors in the Iranian sphere, until recently.
7 021G, “In Dafe | 021G,” YouTube video, 2:17, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjbqwHAf5vI&ab_channel=021G (accessed 31 October 2023).