Conversations in Tehran

Laila Abdalla is an associate professor of English at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, and former professor at McGill University.

In 1997, Iran’s reformist movement voted to replace the Khomeiny-led
religious regime with the pacifist, democratic system of Mohammed
Khatami. In 2004, another parliamentary election resulted in the defeat
of this reformist party. Reformist supporters were frustrated by the
party’s lack of cohesion, its inability to defend against fundamental
Islamists and the unyielding West, and its failure to challenge the
ownership of the oil industry’s profits by a religious and elite
minority of the population. The consequence was Ahmadinejad’s
accession to power. Conversations in Tehran is about this Iran. The two
authors, long familiar with Iran through their travels, films, and
newspaper reports, visited Tehran in 2004, and their book provides a
framework for what may seem as a counter-intuitive decision by a country
seeking to secularize and modernize itself.

Lafond and Reed identify two ways by which outsiders acquire insight
into Iran. One practised by such bodies as CNN, and indicative of the
agenda of demonizing an “axis of evil” participant, is to give money
to people who confirm what these networks already “know.” The other
method—their own—is to “slowly and patiently” build a
relationship with Iranians who remain invested in Iran, and to enter
into conversations with those who function within local communal and
familial intersections. The authors combine historical and political
“fact” with social and cultural observations to explain Iran in 2004
and beyond. In the process, they shed light on contexts that mainstream
Westerners cannot easily fathom (e.g., Ahmadinejad’s positions on
nuclear empowerment and Israel). The book also articulates the severe
anxieties about both parties expressed in 2004 Tehran.

Conversations in Tehran begins with several contextualizing pieces
before it reports on conversations with a wide variety of Tehranis,
including the founder of the Women’s Party, a militant communist
activist, an African American former CIA assassin now living as an
Iranian, an exiled professor of religion, and a journalist. Lafond and
Reed’s confidently written book provides some fascinating insights.