Islamic Revolution of Iran and Post-Colonialism Discourse
Although the society of Iran during the last centuries has not been subject to direct political colonization, the weakness of the political leaders one or two centuries ago and the changes that occurred in the balance of power and the structure of colonialism in the world have highlighted the role of the phenomenon of colonialism and the power of Western discourse in the political, cultural and social structure of Iran. Although powers such as Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Portugal have controlled parts of the country from time to time, Iranian society has been dealing with intellectual colonialism rather than a geographical one. This type of colonialism entered a new stage in the era of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, and the desire of some intellectuals for “absorption in Western culture” and the silence and submission of many elites of the society to the invasion of Western culture fueled this colonial influence. Perhaps the first serious attention to the colonial approach of foreign powers can be observed among some of the intellectuals of the Constitutional period. However, the events that occurred after Constitutionalism and the formation of the Pahlavi regime brought the relationship between the Iranian society and the dominant discourse into a new phase such that we are faced with an obvious and more blatant intellectual colonialism pursued by the Western discourse during the Pahlavi period. Reza Shah’s reform measures aimed at promoting modernity and his rebellion against the religious and cultural values of the society increasingly facilitated this cultural movement and shift towards the Western discourse.
After the exile of Reza Shah, his son also continued the process of extreme closeness to the West and imitating Western culture with greater intensity. Disregarding the cultural and religious contradictions between the culture of the Iranian people with that of the West gradually led the Iranian society during the era of Mohammad-Reza Shah towards self-alienation, cultural and identity conflict and blind imitation of the Western colonialist discourse. However, the Islamic Revolution, as a unique phenomenon, completely changed the structure and balance of discourse governing the communication between the colonizer and the colonized. A Revolution that had been basically formed based on the idea of independence and rejecting Western authority and foreign culture; thus, naturally it led to dramatic cultural, social and political changes in the society. In addition to trying to revive the native culture and religious beliefs of the people, the society’s determination to participate politically and play a real role in the political destiny, as well as confronting the development patterns of the capitalist system and Westernization are all seen in the Islamic Revolution of Iran.
After the downfall of the Pahlavi regime, naturally, the first consequence was the fundamental changes in the political, social and cultural principles of the Iranian society and the abandoning of the values and policies of the former system. The deep and major policies of decolonization and confronting Western-oriented approaches and social changes after the Islamic Revolution began with the destruction of the remaining institutions and elements of Western colonialism, “such as the incident of taking over the American Den of Spies in Iran” and followed by domestic development strategies like the establishment of revolutionary-Islamic institutions such as “the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution,” production of cultural and educational programs with a domestic and all-inclusive approach, Islamization of the public and scientific atmosphere of universities, giving priority to a balanced development of the country, etc. The phenomenon of the Imposed War, which was a clear example of the reaction of the discourse of colonialism and the domination system to the changes that took place in Iran after the Revolution, subject the Iranian society to a political-social crisis. The nature of the war led to a kind of “sympathetic unity” and the “hegemony of the independence-seeking discourse” contributing to expanding and strengthening the religious ideology, and indigenous-cultural values in Iran and further negation of Western values and culture.
Poetry of the First Decade after the Revolution
The Revolution of values at this time first of all targeted the West and the Western discourse centred on America. Imam Khomeini (ra) described the United States as the Great Satan. Therefore, it can be said that the category of colonialism and its related concepts as well as the fight against the discourse of domination and colonialism of the West became one of the most fundamental themes of the literature during the early years after the Islamic Revolution. In the poetry belonging to the early years after the Revolution, the concepts and themes related to the fight against colonialism, dissatisfaction with the exploitative conditions of the overthrown system, the effort to revive the indigenous, traditional and religious culture and values, the fight against cultural self-loathing and the effort to promote a sense of self-confidence in society vis-à-vis the colonial and Western discourse. Naturally, the phenomenon of the Imposed War in 1981 and the engagement of Iranian society with the consequences and painful blows of the domination system and the all-around Western support of the aggressors, created and expanded a sense of pessimism, hatred, confrontation and revenge towards the colonialists in the poetry written during the first decade after the Revolution.
Dealing with the Phenomenon of Losing Identity and Cultural Self-loathing when Confronting the Colonialists
One of the important concepts in the poetry of the first decade after the Islamic Revolution was to deal with the loss of identity and self-loathing in the face of the unbridled culture of the colonists.
In the works of many poets who belong to the first decade after the Revolution, such as Alireza Qazveh, Nasrullah Mardani, Salman Herati, Mohammad-Reza Abdolmalekian, etc., the concepts of abandoning religious and indigenous identity and inclining towards the Western identity and lifestyle have been frequently addressed by the poet:
“We became civilized with an electric samovar
And learned to say:
Thank you, Your Highness!
And again, everything was as the same as before
And Cafe Glace, Cappuccino, and various Italian ice creams
Were as a penance for all our negligence
When we put aside our intellect and start imitating the foreigners
They should raise actors and celebrities
And newspapers should write ‘Women should use yoga for fitness.’”
For example, in the poem above, Alireza Qazveh cleverly uses the word “civilization” in an attempt to challenge the point of view that equates civilization with Westernization, warning the readers that a society without independent thoughts and views will end up with nothing except cultural and intellectual self-loathing. Perhaps one of the best poems of the first decade after the Revolution, regarding the emphasis on independent religious and national identity, is the famous poem entitled Khiaban Hashemi written by Mohammad-Reza Abdolmalekian. In this poem, while praising a part of the society that has tried to stick to its values and cultural identity, Abdolmalekian seeks to show the reader some concrete and obvious examples of colonization and self-loathing, thereby presenting the contrast between two patterns of thought and life, namely the ones preserving the cultural identity and inclining to foreign identity:
“Hashemi street
An uncompromising street
A deep-rooted street
An independent street
A street that has never accepted ‘pizza’
A street where there are no sofa shops
And its sandwich shop owners
Always live in a bad condition
A street in which people do not wear perfume
And do not smoke pipes
And “dollar” is always an unknown word for it
A street that does not rely on and belongs to the foreigners
A street that is not a servant
A street that does not wash Europe’s dishes
A street that is not the doorman of Paris restaurants
A street that does not bow
A street that will not be humiliated
And does not ask for a tip
A street that gets bigger every day.”
In the poem, Khiaban Hashemi, concepts and elements such as pizza, sofa, sandwich, perfume, restaurant, dollar, etc. are clearly symbols of the identity and Western lifestyle, and according to the poet, the residents of this street are those who on the other hand, have stood up against cultural self-alienation and self-loathing and the inclination towards the identity of the colonizers, and on the other hand, have preserved their true origins and identity.
Herati portrays the War fronts for the readers in which the superficial and consumerist attitude and lifestyle have no place, and nothing could be found except authenticity, simplicity, and firm faith:
“I miss the war fronts in the dead-end streets
Not a single bit of sunshine is available
We reach the end every day
And the doors of wellness will be opened
And the table of kindness
Invites us with a glass of cold drink
When a cup of water is given to you for free
And it will quench your thirst, that Coca-Cola is tastier than Pepsi is no longer important!”
Confronting the Global Domination and Hegemony of the Colonialists
Standing up against the oppression of the dominating powers and defending the oppressed, on a global scale, encouraging the audience to stand up and resist the colonialists, cases of the oppression and violating rights committed by the global colonialists, praising the independent and anti-tyranny attitude and describing the greatness of those who do not submit to such a phenomenon are among the concepts poets frequently used during the first decade after the Revolution, to confront colonialism and global colonizers:
“Into the big trumpet of the world, Satan
Blows deception
And sedition
Satan hits our small throat
With a dagger so that the song of us being oppressed
Does not disturb the careless world
Satan has imprisoned the world
In carelessness and indifference
So that its followers
Continue to rule over the world
The law of Satan reigns over the earth
And in the midst of this, the oppressed
Are being looted
Satan is afraid of our awakening.”
“With the dagger that you squeeze
And the snakes that you have in your sleeves and a belly
Bulged due to taking the oppressed people’s rights away from them
While being like a pig standing over the corpses of the deprived of the world
The green mask of foxes will deceive no one anymore
The Persian Gulf is the end of the danger
And the lullaby of your mothers
Is the burning flame song of ‘death to America…’”
The prominent role global colonialism played in hardware and software support of Saddam’s regime during the invasion of Iran and impeding Iran’s oppressed people to defend their territory during the War, on the one hand, developed a feeling of hatred towards the discourse of domination and colonialism among the poets of the first decade after the Revolution, and on the other hand, led to the resistance poetry of the time increasingly reflecting the condemnation of the “United States-centred” colonialism:
“Two hundred brave prisoners
Died under the bombardment and the bomb
Has so skillfully
Removed the marks of torture from the bodies of the martyrs
That “Human Rights Organization” and “International Defence” in the absence of any evidence cannot judge or make comments.”
“Let’s do the prayer”
It’s time for praying i.e., death to America.”
The domination of the colonial powers over the institutions that were apparently founded to uphold the rights of the nations of the world and their contradictory and discriminatory performance in the face of the oppression of the global colonialists have never been ignored by the committed and anti-colonialist poet during the first decade after the Revolution:
“In a world where society supports animals but humans
Walk barefoot and naked
And are buried because of the cold
For a world whose romantic biologists
Mourn the extinction of the dinosaurs
A world that has become a cow in support of its own kind.”
In addition, portraying and praising freedom-seeking and anti-colonial figures in other parts of the world are among the obvious examples of this struggle and feeling of hatred towards the global colonialists. For instance, we could refer to the following poem written by Salman Herati,” in which the freedom-seeking combatant of the Republic of Ireland, namely Bobby Sands, is praised.
Herati by going beyond the syntactic norms and using the phrase “they killed Bobby Sands by suicide” has increased the beauty of the form of the poem and also asked the reader to think about how he died:
“He is very kind
When they killed ‘Bobby Sands’ by suicide
He went to see Christ and took us to the boundaries of kindness.”
In the following poem, Tahereh Safarzadeh praises another freedom-seeking fighter “Emmet” in Southern Ireland defending his efforts and those like him to free themselves from the grip of the old colonial power of the United Kingdom:
“Messiah has come and ‘Emmet’
And your eyes are in the company of a man
Whom by choosing death gave
All the moments of being like a poetry
In the eternal destination of independence to the executioners.”
Warning the Audience about Returning to the Colonialization They Experienced in the Past
In many of their works, the poets of the Revolution, while describing the unfortunate cultural, social and political conditions of the Pahlavi regime with respect to the issue of colonialism and domination, warn the readers that if the society is not ready and aware in terms of intellectual and social vision, it might have to suffer again the fate and conditions that prevailed before the Revolution and neo-colonialism will impose its full domination on Iran:
“Do not lie to my son
Do not say that I have gone on a trip
Do not say that I will return from a trip
Do not say that I will bring him the most beautiful gifts
Tell my son the truth
Tell him because of your freedom
A thousand colonial mortars have targeted your father’s chest
Do not lie to my son
Let my son’s little heart
Break and eternal hatred of the cruelty of the oppressors of the world
Take root in it
Do not lie to my son
I do not want a false dream
Close my son’s eyes
And take the sun away from him
So that the oppressors of the world
Place the burden they had imposed on my father
On my son
And tie my son’s hands with the chain they had tied to my father’s leg.”
Also, we could refer to the following poem written by Alireza Qazveh, in which the poet, while expressing some components of self-loathing in the previous government, such as Googoosh, Dariush, Nemat Nafti, etc., seeks to warn the audience that returning to the past conditions of subjection to domination would be much more likely when people commit negligence and are indifferent:
“In a time when people might completely change
In the days of jokes and backbiting
Bitter and sweet experiences
Dariush and Googoosh,
Nemat Nafti
A time people use flip-flops
Careless people
Mr. American
Let’s not think about civilization
When the coffin of the martyr does not come
This was all the cupping blood of the nation so that HajAgha continues eating kebab
Smokes a hookah
Shows off his special rosary
And makes a deal with a phone made by Siemens
O God give us pure American Islam so that we would be free from any accusation.”
“Rain and the dream of a spike
When there are lots of mushrooms
The result of the search for spring
Garden, patient and the birds, be careful.”
In the short piece above, the poet by using a gentle and emotional but thought-provoking language and tone describes the present condition of the garden of values and social system warning the readers about the growth of poisonous mushrooms.
Dealing with Vulgarity, Corruption and Blind Imitation
Cultural vulgarity is a concern that has a special place in the thought and language of the poets of the Revolution during the first decade after the Revolution. Considering the conditions of the Pahlavi regime and how it was culturally influenced by Western lifestyle and culture, it would be natural that the fear of forgetting new values and the re-spreading of cultural vulgarity occupies the minds of many poets affiliated with the ideology of the Islamic Revolution.
For example, in the poem below, the fear of society’s passivity towards the growth and spread of cultural invasion and vulgarity in addition to warning about the consequences of this problem are quite evident and the poet, while expressing the alarming change in the inclinations and intellectual and cultural attitude of the society, emphasizes the fear of forgetting religious and cultural values and beliefs:
“Yesterday on the street, I saw a woman
Who was promoting samurai-style gowns
With tight sleeves
For those who want to do prayer with dry ablution
From some magazines, one could smell the French perfume
And I am thinking about a reality
Who digs the trashcans in the darkness of the night?!
I am afraid that someday
They will make people wear a bell in the name of civilization
I am afraid that jeans and Charlie pants would put us into trouble
And English chocolates will shut our mouths
Cows grazing freely in the street
Michael Jackson’s adopted sons go to university
Kambiz Khan likes to call his son Alfred
Giti prefers guitar
Suzy without being ashamed reads her boyfriend’s letter to her mother
People rarely feel ashamed.”
Addressing the Concept of Awaiting the Reappearance and its Relationship with Anti-Colonialism
The emphasis of poets affiliated with the Revolution and their efforts to explain the grounds for the reappearance of the Imam al-Mahdi (as) and its connection with the confrontation between right and wrong are the points that have a special place in the anti-colonial attitudes of the early years after the Revolution. In many of the works of the above-mentioned period, Awaiting serves as a dynamic, active, and hard-working concept which seeks to provide the proper conditions for the Reappearance of the Imam (as) and the rule of goodness and Truth while believing that the Reappearance of the Saviour at the end of time, is possible only in the shadow of the struggle against colonization and domination. Therefore, that attitude practically has a close relationship with the concept of anti-colonialism and fighting against foreign domination in different political, social and cultural aspects.
“You should be ready to unsheathe your sword
And squeeze the throat of evil
O leader of the oceans of reforms and uprising
The night has lasted in the world for a long time
Release the storm
And bridle the horse of the uprising.”
“I have seen the footprints of Farvardin (spring)
It was moving on your snowy shoulders
And now I am thinking of a bird
That comes from the green sky.”
Believing in the Sacredness of the Homeland
During the early years after the Revolution, the young poets affiliated with the ideology of the Islamic Revolution, due to their hatred of the colonial power of the West in the Pahlavi regime and their humiliating behaviour, were trying to present an emotional, pure, powerful, unyielding, successful and sacred image of Islamic Iran by highlighting the concept of homeland and its sanctity as well as tying the concept of nationalism with religious beliefs, thereby reinforcing the position of the homeland in opposition to the discourse of the colonization and domination.
Therefore, by using national and mythological symbols and heroes along with religious symbols and figures and tying these two concepts with each other, the poets of the first decade of the Revolution dealt with the colonial powers and humiliated them:
“O homeland, my pride! May Divine blessings be upon you,
May the grace of your God be with you and your enemy be disgraced.
O homeland, you are the apple of our eyes
In a time when foreigners are present.
We are living in a city of hope
We have a price wherever we are.
Our homeland does not belong to others
We have our own home.”
Defending the homeland and patriotism, martyrdom, sacrifice and giving one’s life for the homeland against the enemy which is strongly supported by the discourse of domination and colonialism, have added a lot to the emotional and mystical aspects of patriotism in the poetry of the first decade after the Revolution.
“My enemy, if you shed blood on my soil,
Flowers will grow in this garden.
If you burn my body and tie me up to a pole
And cut off my head
I am Iranian, my goal is martyrdom
And my death is the manifestation of the universe.”
“I will make you my homeland again, although with the clay of my life
I will put a pillar under your roof, even with my own bones.
Even though I have been dead for a hundred years, I will stand on my grave
to take away the heart of Evil by may cry and scream.”
In the poem below, Nasrollah Mardani while employing epical and mythological symbols as well as instilling the sense of “we” and “national unity” based on the homeland and common values, sharply criticizes the dominators:
“O demon of the time, we will break
The glass of your life with faith.
The devil of ‘I’ will no longer be able to deceive us
Because we would become ‘we’ and eliminate the “I.”
We will punch the mouths of those who speak nonsense
And break the necks of the world’s oppressors.”
Reference: Journal of Literary Criticism and Stylistics Research. Vol 8, No 2, Summer 2017, Pp 97-119.
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