In Iran, the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah deeply influenced the country's economic, political, and social life. Everything either began or ended with the state. The state was the most important institution in the country and enjoyed a significant monopoly in political and economic decision-making, trade, etc. It enjoyed autonomy from social pressures and pursued its own policies, whilst controlling political groups. Therefore, to analyse the function and behaviour of the state and the economic development of the country, I have used a political economy approach. To this end, a model has been constructed to describe the political structure of the Iranian state and to map the country’s political and economic development. It has been argued that: 1. The political structure of the regime was authoritarian-bureaucratic, based on the three pillars of the state bureaucracy, the security machinery and the armed forces, and the network of court patronage. A parallel to this structure can be seen in the Safavid dynasty whose pillars of power were the same.2 The decision-making process and exercise of power was manipulated by, and depended upon, the Shah and the ruling elite. This manipulation depended substantially on the degree of state autonomy from social and economic groups.3. The state acted as the engine of economic growth and the main source of capital accumulation. Thus, the political system became the main economic decision-making body who dictated economic policies for more than the market. In spite of this direction, the state never questioned the essence of private capital accumulation.4. Oil revenues, both by increasing the magnitude of resources at the disposal of the state and by easing structural constraints, substantially increased the capacity of the state to intervene in economy and society to pursue its own policies, and5. Oil revenues provided a new kind of economy, built on rent and heavily reliant on the export of a single raw material, the production of which required little contact with the rest of the economy. It brought spectacular growth, yet at the same time engendered dependency on volatile markets. In the long run oil also created new international interdependencies as the state relied on foreign markets for capital, labour, and goods. Furthermore, Iran had no independent technological capacity and had to import semi finished goods to meet its industrial needs. Therefore, a process of 'dependent development' was shaped during the 1960s and 1970s.

The present study addresses the transformation of post-revolutionary Tehran beginning with its modern construction since the mid-19th century. In so doing, Lefebvre’s theories and concepts have been employed as a theoretical framework. However, it is not only a reading of Tehran’s transformation through a Lefebvrian lens. It is, also, a modification of Lefebvre’s theory through Tehran. Enhanced by the particularity of Tehran, this aim follows by introducing new concepts such as Islamification, externalisation of the interior and internalisation of the exterior, Arbab and Ra’yaat space and so on to the Lefebvrian conceptual framework. This research deals with three constitutive elements (economic processes, Islamification, and resistance) from three scales (global, national, and private) in three periods (pre-revolutionary, post-revolutionary, neoliberal). It is shown that Tehran in each period is characterised by constant interaction of the abovementioned elements and interpenetration of these varied scales. In this regard, not only is Tehran examined in distinct periods, but also it is proposed a logic of continuity between these analytically separated epochs. Therefore, this study reconstructs the development of Tehran through its continuities and discontinuities. This multi-dimensional study enables us to present a holistic view of the transformation of the city of Tehran. Keeping with the idea of totality, the research suggests that while the production of Tehran contains global processes and universal forms, it is differentiated through its particular characteristics such as Islamic ideology and its position within the global order.

This thesis attempts to demonstrate how the British Government, through the creation of the South Persian Rifles (1916-1921) tried to protect their interests in south Persia, in the special circumstances of the outbreak of World War I, with the official sanction of the Persian Government. The account is given of the origins of the force, of the differences of opinions on its aims and objectives, of its organisation and strategy, its operations and other activities mainly in Fars. The "Sipahdär" agreement of August 1916 is treated in some detail and the relevance of the non-recognition of the force to the subsequent tribal uprisings and disturbances in Fars is examined. Lastly, the significance of the role of the South Persian Rifles is assessed in the light of the 1919 agreement and the aftermath of war, as well as the force's contribution to internal developments. An attempt has been made to discuss these issues as much from the point of view of the different departments of the Imperial and Indian Governments, as from the Persian standpoint. Events in the south have been treated more fully than hitherto from the perspective of internal Persian history

This thesis reclaims the analysis of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. It is mindful of analysis of the stereotypical, and partial tendencies of orientalist representations of Satrapi’s work by both Iranian officials and “Western” media and readership. Themes are detected from this analysis and pertain to the message and intention of the author to create her work. The intentio lectoris1 (i.e. what audiences believe or led to believe) proposed that orientalist paradigms present the meaning of the work or Satrapi’s agenda, i.e. the intentio auctoris. Persepolis has been enthusiastically received all around the world, except in Iran. It has been described and interpreted as the critique of a courageous girl against the foundations of the Iranian Islamic Republic. Notwithstanding the success, the graphic novel and the animated movie derived from it in 2007 have been banned by the Iranian government, and subsequently Marjane Satrapi has been refused entry into the country. The polarised reception of Satrapi’s work in Iran and worldwide, is contextualised within (neo) orientalist critique. I detect in these receptions both potentials and problems. Reclaiming aspects of Persepolis’ analysis that have been excluded from and therefore devalued by external agencies is affirmed as a necessary and important contribution. However, I note that the overwhelming reluctance amongst “Western” media and news reporters to speak of Satrapi’s dual and neutral position, or to grasp at specificity her intentio auctoris, prevents us from a thorough discussion of their analysis. Satrapi’s work is ultimately left in the hands of clichés. I attempt to analyse Persepolis in such a way that it not only affirms rationality, fluidity, and duality, but also offers new and beneficial ways to argue Satrapi’s position and intention. My thesis is thus partly rooted in a feminist standpoint perspective to give voice to Satrapi’s agenda. What is more, it converses with similar restrictive regulations and contextualises them within an analysis of selected post-revolutionary autobiographical literature. My ultimate goal is to analyse the Iranian position towards Persepolis by making sense of the theological and political thought of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution, and the concept of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurists) and the national and international responses to it in a way in which to take and transform the representation of Persepolis and Iranian culture consequently. This is done by explaining the current Iranian situation and Iranian responses to internal and external threats. Theological analyses and the explication of some of the historical complexities affecting modern Iran (especially after the revolution) would be beneficial along the way.

This thesis is an attempt to understand the concept of the public sphere through applying it to the Islamic Republic of Iran. This requires understanding the era of the revolution of information and communication technology, as it has affected the structures of the Iranian public sphere. It also aims to understand the Iranian public sphere after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It tries to offer a complete picture of the Iranian public sphere, including its state and society. Here, both the concept of the public sphere and the Iranian public sphere are being used in order to understand each other. The concept of the public sphere, here, is understood as it covers all actions and reactions that occur in a country. Its contemporary model is one which greatly depends on the Internet and uses non-controllable freedoms. The aim is, therefore, to find out the nature of the Iranian public sphere after the Islamic Revolution and describe the role that the agents of both state and society play in the Iranian public sphere. To collect and analyse data, updated documents and methods are used. Thus, the thesis has used different resources including pictorial and online documents. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the collected data. It has partly been gained through online media observation to collect data, and content and discourse analysis to analyse it. Finally, by showing reactivity inside the Iranian public sphere, this thesis suggests that nondemocratic regimes cannot disable the public sphere totally and also the public sphere can be active even under the hegemony of non-democratic powers. However, activity does not necessarily mean strength, as the Iranian public sphere can be considered as active but also weak. That is mainly because most of its activities are fruitless ones.

The thesis is an investigation into the concept of modem political myth and its relationship to ideology. It argues that political myth can best be understood as the personalisation or familiarisation of ideology, by which ideological constructions are identified either with an individual, normally a political leader, or are expressed in mythic representations familiar within a given state and drawn from the traditional myths which permeate the political cultures of that state. The thesis argues that the personalisation and possible personification of ideology is one of the most obvious methods of political myth production and notes that the inherent contradictions and tensions resulting from an attempt to identify an individual with a principle almost always results in the construction of political myth. Political myth construction and development remains dynamic and reciprocal in relation to its ideational and material environment. Iran during the Pahlavi period (1921-79) provides the case-study for the thesis, as a society in the process of profound social and economic change led by a government both enthusiastic and economically able to impose its own particular conception of development and modernity within a nationalistic framework, upon the country. The continued importance of personalities to the political process and then attempts to identify with particular ideologies provided cogent examples of political myth construction and development. With particular emphasis on Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the thesis shows the development of his ideological world-view, the initial reciprocal dynamic of these views, leading towards increasing identification, polarisation and isolation by the end of his reign. The thesis seeks to show how political myth was employed to naturalise and legitimise the Pahlavi Dynasty within the Iranian state. In charting the ideological development in the Pahlavi era, from traditional state towards a particular conception of modernity, political myth is seen to be not a uniquely modem phenomenon. However, the emergence of the modem mass media, especially in electronic form has resulted in the acceleration of political myth construction and its widespread and rapid dissemination. This technological change helps to differentiate modern political myth from its predecessors and given the continuing growth of the mass media, is likely to ensure that the concept of political myth wall be increasingly important to political discourse.

The present DPhil research attempts to develop an appropriate method for the historiography of ideas by taking into consideration cultural, linguistic and socio-political limitations and obstacles to free thinking in a predominantly closed society like Qajar Iran. By applying such a method the study then investigates the history of the idea of freedom in Iran during one of the most important periods in the evolution of this concept. The research method is grounded in a hermeneutical interpretation of Collingwood's logic of question and answer. It also employs MacCallum's meta-theoretical frame of analysis which states that freedom is always of something (an agent or agents), from something (conditions), to do something (actions). Using this methodological framework, the research shows how most locutions about freedom uttered in the last century of the Qajar period were formed within the horizon of the question of decline and were somehow related to remedy such situations. It then explores how late Qajar interpretations of the three variables of freedom manifest themselves in the socio-political life of early 20th century Iran. During the first constitutional period (August 1906-June 1908), the major concern of the first majlis was to establish the rule of law. In legislating the constitution and its supplement, the majority of the majlis believed that the main obstacle to freedom was arbitrary rule. Therefore, they endeavoured to restrain the government’s illegal and arbitrary interferences in the people's freedom. However, they did not develop a rational criterion for identifying legitimate and justifiable legal interferences. During the second constitutional period (July 1909– February 1921), the main concern of the second majlis was to restrain chaos and to strengthen the central government in order to put an end to domestic insecurity and foreign threats. To rectify such a situation, the majlis empowered the government to interfere even in the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution. As a result, the situation began to turn from chaos towards arbitrary rule. The research also argues that in most of their interpretations of the aim of freedom, constitutionalists considered an action permissible only if it was compatible with public interest as well as the material and spiritual progress of individuals and society. Theoretically, the aim of freedom could not have been the doing of an action that harmed another person or violated his/her freedom. Furthermore, 'the right to be wrong,' even if it harmed no one, was never defended. Nonetheless, in practice, freedom turned into chaos and licence in both the first and in the second constitutional periods. Finally, this study investigates how the Iranian pioneers of the freedom-seeking movement responded to the question of the eligibility of the agent of freedom, and the question of the equality of agents in having freedom. Iranian society was taking its first steps in experiencing the rule of law and had a long way to go to rectify its discriminatory culture and to establish equal rights. In such conditions, accepting a set of equal fundamental rights for all Iranians should be considered a great achievement for the constitutional movement.

In 1979, the socio-­political landscape of Iran was transformed beyond recognition. After years of conflict between the Shah and a myriad of political opposition groups, it seemed that the people had indeed triumphed over an authoritarian monarch. As is now widely known, their short lived victory transformed into a systematic programme of terror that turned back on and attacked those that the Islamic Republic deemed contrary to its values. The ‘bloody decade' of the 1980s saw thousands of executions and disappearances under the cloak of the war with neighbouring Iraq. The records of these massacres are still largely unreliable and/or incomplete. The programme of terror in question, that ensued and persists up to the present day, has instigated a sprawling transnational Diaspora with a familiar but rarely divulged public secret. My doctoral thesis comprises two main parts in relation to these events. They are connected by the running theme of alternative narratives of past violence, and a post-­traumatic political activism. This is an intimate ethnography that examines global processes (revolution, Diaspora, transnational activism) from the vantage point of local and particular histories of Lur, former Fadaiyan guerilla fighters in Oslo. In the second part of this work, these histories are located within the collective movement of the Iran Tribunal, a literal attempt to make secrets public and to bring together subjective experiences of violence into a truth-‐telling process. Opening up a new space for critical reflection, this study proposes an alternative lens of analysis of tumultuous historical processes. With regards to their actors, efforts are made to better understand how lives and narratives are ordered around the characteristic disorder of violence, fear and Diaspora itself, and how subjective traumas manifest into collective, and in this case transnational, movements. My ethnography of disordered and interrupted lives works to inform studies of such critical contemporary realities as well as to ethnographically introduce the Iranian Diasporas' public secret of violence for wider anthropological enquiry, and to contribute towards its critical analysis.

This thesis examines the interpretive tradition of Mullā Ṣadrā in the context of the schools of Tehran and Qum. Mullā Ṣadrā’s transcendental philosophy (al-ḥikmah al-mutaʿālīyah or ḥikmat) avails itself to a number of readings; however, this thesis focuses on the philosophical and mystical (ʿirfānī) readings in terms of their development, transmission and their impact on how ḥikmat is understood in the modern Iranian seminary (ḥawza). The way in which a text is read in the ḥawza has great implications for the development of ideas, as the ḥawza uses a text based system to train students in a particular field. While both readings were studied by the majority of transcendental philosophers (ḥukamāʾ) in the school of Tehran, the school of Qum saw a greater separation between the readings and I show that for a number of reasons, including the introduction of seminal texts written by ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī, a preference developed for a more philosophical reading of transcendental philosophy. I examine evidence for the different preferences of the ḥukamāʾ for either a more philosophical or ʿirfānī reading of ḥikmat through an examination of their writings on the subjects of existence (wujūd), guardianship (walāyah) and resurrection (maʿād) which act as case studies. The theoretical implications of both approaches are examined in each chapter as well as their interdependence. The schools of Tehran and Qum built on Mullā Ṣadrā’s framework and provided new interpretations of important issues. Apart from the intricate discussions on the core aspects of ḥikmat, Muḥammad Riżā Qumshihī’s masterful examination of the Seal of the Saints and ʿAlī Mudarris Zunūzī’s philosophy of bodily resurrection are examples of a thriving interpretive tradition in Iran and constitute significant developments of important philosophical and ʿirfānī concepts from the ideas of their predecessors.

The White Revolution was a set of six reform measures put to the Iranian people via referendum on 6 Bahman 1341 (26 January 1963), based on a plan for social justice linked with economic development, encased in the concept of a bloodless revolution from the top. This did not happen unexpectedly; it was the culmination of events spanning several years, which accelerated during the John F. Kennedy Presidency. Various plans and reforms paved the way for the White Revolution and certain events as well as political and economic developments encouraged reform. There were similarities between plans and some reforms influenced others, or were shaped to suit different agendas. All played a part in instigating the White Revolution. This included Prime Minister ʻAlī Amīnī’s 15-point plan, the Shah’s Royal Farmān, the Third Development Plan, and the six-points of the White Revolution itself. The question this thesis seeks to answer is to what extent the Kennedy administration was responsible for instigating the White Revolution by influencing the various steps that paved the way for the 6 Bahman referendum?The United States had at its disposal various means by which it might apply pressure and influence development. This included, economic aid, military assistance, numerous advisers, agencies on the ground, plus support for the Shah and other Iranians. Given the Kennedy administration’s association with modernisation and development, the existing historiography has portrayed this period in US-Iranian relations as one of increased pressure on the Shah to reform with the White Revolution being the result of such pressure. This thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by challenging this portrayal by providing the first detailed, analysis of the period 1961-63, utilising a vast array of newly released documents. This is not the first study to conclude agency on the part of Iran for the White Revolution, but is the first to do so though a detailed, balanced approach, which doesn’t ignore the significance of the US-Iranian relationship. Thus, this thesis is at the forefront of revisionist accounts of US-Iranian relations during the Cold War critiquing the portrayal of the Shah and others as mere tools of the US and reaching the conclusion that contrary to widely held beliefs it was Iranians rather than Americans who instigated the White Revolution by initiating and directing reform.