Drugs and Revolution in Iran

Islamic Devotion, Revolutionary Zeal and Republican Means

Bibliographic Data

ID9977488
AuthorsMaziyar Ghiabi (0000-0002-2171-2811, Wellcome Trust, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume48
Issue2
Pages139-163
Publication date2014-02-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIranian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-0862 • E-ISSN: 1475-4819
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/00210862.2013.830877
OpenAlexW2055679559
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited51

On 27 June 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini declared, ‘drugs are prohibited” and their trafficking, consumption and “promotion” were against the rules of Islam and could not take place in the Islamic Republic. This ruling, although informal in nature, sanctioned a swift re-direction of Iran's previous approach to narcotic drugs, both in terms of production and consumption. As had happened in 1955, Iran seemed ready to go back to a policy of total prohibition and eradication of opiates, this time under the banner of Islam rather than that of the international drug control regime. Drugs and the politics surrounding them have been a crucial, yet neglected, aspect of the history of modern Iran that have changed the nature of the state bolstering its capacity of social intervention, while hindering its legitimacy, in the Pahlavi, as in the republican, era. By moving on “from the analysis of the state to a concern with the actualities of social subordination”, this article attempts to interpret how social subordination and state coercion were practiced and defied in the making of punishment and welfare in the social body of Iran

Coercion (linguistics · Consumption (sociology · Islam · Islamic republic · Legitimacy · Opium · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Subordination (linguistics · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philosophy · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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