Abstract
What is Iranian national identity and how is it constructed? Shabnam Holliday tackles these questions in this aptly named book, Defining Iran. Identity functions as a framework that provides a form of conscious understanding of the self, society, culture, history and the future, and is essential to finding practical solutions to political and social dilemmas. How Iran defines its collective identity has a direct bearing on its social development and its role in the global community. This timely book is meticulously argued in six chapters in which Holliday attempts to clarify and systematize a concept as elusive as national identity. The first chapter offers a conceptual analysis of national identity discourses and counter-discourses. Chapters 2 and 3 contextualize concepts such as Īrānīyat and Islāmīyat as the basis of national identity in modern Iran. A survey of the articulation and application of the discourses of Ayatollah Khamenei and Mohammad Khatami on national identity follows in chs. 4 and 5. Chapter 6 discusses a new civic national identity discourse.
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