Nightmares and Dreams of Iranian Republicanism: the crisis of 2026 and the responsibility of intellectuals

Iran's 1906 constitutional revolution 

 

Iran's 1979 Revolution 

Current Jan 2026 protests

 

 Nightmares and Dreams of Iranian Republicanism: the crisis of 2026 and the responsibility of intellectuals  

Farid Saberi

Note for Reader:

 What follows is intended to be a sketch or list of observations written in response to the desperate need for clarity and better understanding in these horrifying times. The most important thing for the writer has been not to fall for simplifying framing that distorts the picture: a battle between the so-called brutal medieval mindset of political Islam against the liberal mentality of modern Iranians. Mainstream media illicit this kind of implicit background framing for the issues. It is convenient, but it has nothing to do with the reality of the actual historical development of the complex and modern Iranian society and its variety of classes and cultural identities. 

This simplifying-distorting framing of the situation will only follow if we allow for orientalism, cultural essentialism, and abstracting away cultural and political conflicts from the history of class and economic development in Iran. Without these distorting effects, we can look at the details and history and have a better grasp of our situation. Understanding the situation clearly is essential for anyone who deeply cares about the sufferings of the people of Iran and wants to express solidarity and intervene in a helpful way.

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The situation in Iran is so dark and stark that it leaves anyone too overwhelmed for sober and comprehensive analysis. I will just leave some sketches of basic points here.

1- The Islamic Republic has brewed the wildest forms of capitalism and corrupt oligarchy in an economy that has been under severe illegal and geopolitically driven sanctions by the West. Instead of an economy adapted to the sanctions, Iran's economy has been adapted to the greed of its capitalist elite. This economic policy has pushed the republican interpretation of Islam molded in the dawn of the 1979-80 revolution toward a dictatorial version of Islam, hollowed out, deprived of popular anti-colonialism and support of the masses of the poor. Now, the evolved version of Iranian Islamic republicanism is an exclusive identity politics, taking pride in estranging the "impious" lifestyle of the modern urbanized middle class, emphasizing the lifestyle and dressing of women, and not a political agenda to keep the nation united under the constant threat of Imperialist bullying.

2- From the onset of the modern political culture and politically conscious and educated classes in Iran (say, Iran's constitutional revolution 1905-1911), the European style of republicanism has been central to the historical development of the political culture. Like most Global South countries that started their modernization later than the European capitalist core, Iran's politics did not have the luxury of an anti-perfectionist liberalism of private citizens as a medium for political development. Instead, the populist format of politics of the oppressed masses was always part of the picture. A religious or secular (nationalist or socialist) vision of what is a good (personal, public) Iranian life was central to its political development. Under the threat of colonialism and foreign capital and states, a Middle Eastern modern political culture cannot afford too much tolerance. Islamic Republicanism was the synthesis and the outcome of decades of Iranian modernization since its constitutional revolution in 1906 till its anti-monarchist revolution of 1979. Seven decades of political development that pushed away secular republicanism (nationalist or leftist) and landed the victory card in the hands of Islamic republicanism. The main reason for this fortune was not only the activities of the Islamist intelligentsia, but also the US and the Pahlavi monarchy's repression and coups against secular republicanism. 

3- Despite cultural essentialism, there is no inherent essence to Islam (or Christianity, or any other religion) as a cultural construct that makes it only be interpreted and enacted in progressive or reactionary ways. Individual people interpreting and reproducing the cultural constructs and their historical and economic situations matter much more than the doctrines. However, Shia Islam, as interpreted by the founders of the Islamic Republic, has exhausted its potential as a language for the oppressed and anti-colonial third-world revolutionary populism. It has been shown that it cannot evolve and be flexible to the changing realities. It constantly brings itself to the verge of contradiction. Privatization and wild capitalism and oppression of workers from inside, while resisting full subordination to the global poles of capitalism (The political elite of the Imperialist West).

3-This has left political mentality of Iranian torn between two equally despicable options: i) giving up on their republican dreams of national autonomy, a country that is deprived of its independence and subsumed under the US imperialism (giving up on the sovereignty over economic and national policies and playing by the rules of imperialism, just like some Latin American countries whose population have been hostages in the hand of American capital and military as soon as they start to act in a way that is not considered well-behaved for the Imperialist rulers). To give up on republicanism is to give up on the idea that Iranians could ever think for themselves. They should love Israel and the US, even if they don't want to, and if, for a second, they were tempted to sympathize with the victims of the US and Israel in the region (that is, If they ever wanted to act on their temptation of solidarity with Palestinians) as an independent, autonomous national policy, that would be considered misbehavior and would not be tolerated by the Imperialist Masters of the Middle East.

ii) The second option is to not give up and tolerate the existing system, the Islamic Republic, which has inflexibly and dogmatically stuck to its exclusive (identity-politics style) version of Islam, its neoliberal capitalism, and its desperate under-preparation in the face of Western threat and sanction. That has not worked out, and the ordinary people will not stay within a system that is fully dysfunctional and has developed its internal contradictions to the tipping point of undermining itself. What the Iranians collectively choose as their future is beyond the control of anyone. Whether Iranians choose their future with self-awareness of its history and economic and geopolitical situation, and reflection on its past, is something still up for debate. Intellectuals, like good therapists, don't make decisions for their clients; they just want to make sure they have all the relevant skills and resources to make their own decisions for themselves. 

4- Note that in the case of foreign intervention, the options are not a mild loss of self-autonomy in exchange for mercy from the political-economic elite of the West. It would be total destruction: this ranges from civil war (Balkanization of Iran) to, installation of a brutal dictator who makes sure Iranian political consciousness will never dream again of republican dreams and independence, or Western plunder of Iranian resources. The stable option in Iran (that would keep the foreign powers, the domestic capitalists, and elites happy) would be a brutal option.

5- The situation, surely, is dire enough, but not hopeless. The responsibility of progressive and left intellectuals (inside or outside Iran) is structurally like that of a therapist: They should not tell people what they want, or what they should really want. Instead, they should act as a reality check and a memory of the people and the protesters. They should just help people to make their distorted consciousness into a coherent one, and then the choice will be clear for them by their own deliberation.

6- Finally, fighting capitalism, fascism, and imperialism is a boring and long-term repetitive task and not heroic short-term acts. Just like in a relationship, where we need healthy, boring communication about boring details of laundry folding and house chores, and silly mistakes. The responsibility of intellectuals is also a constant and boring task of going through the historical details of the 1953 coup, the constitutional revolution against the right-wing and monarchist interpretation of it. The intellectual should go through and labor over the details of specific economic, banking, and trade polices of the government and show the population what the real roots of their misery are, and not what they are led to believe by propaganda of those in power.