Iran (Islamic Republic Of)

This research examines the religious and political ties between 'official' Iran and UK-based Muslim communities. Based on a case study of Iran's institutional presence in the UK that will discuss its multifaceted religious, educational, and political programmes for coreligionists, it seeks to analyse how the Islamic Republic transfers, negotiates, and reformulates its norms and values transnationally. The British scene offers an interesting case study primarily because it is host to many Sunni and Shi‘i Muslims from different ethnic and national backgrounds, communities to which the Islamic Republic of Iran has paid particular attention from the 1980s onwards. Looking specifically at the effect of transnationalism on the state, this research will analyse the Islamic Republic’s use of cross-border activism as a soft power resource. In general terms, Iran’s transnational interactions with Muslim communities have mainly been studied with regard to Islamic political movements in Arab and Central Asian countries, while its reach to coreligionists living away from their country of origin has largely been overlooked in the literature. Yet, Iran’s involvement in the lives of Muslim migrants, refugees, and exiles is characteristic of its quest for religious and political leadership outside the country’s borders and, I argue, has much to say about the use of religion to advance state interests. As such, the benefits of state-sponsored transnationalism cannot only consider the direct ties Iran creates and maintains with Muslim believers, but also its relations with both their country of origin and the state hosting them (namely the UK), as well as with other transnational actors involved in transnational activities on the British scene.

Since the late 1970s, international wars and intra-state violence have battered the country of Afghanistan, generating several waves of mass displacement. According to the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2011), a tragic consequence of this violent legacy is that currently one out of every four refugees in the world is from Afghanistan – making it the leading country of origin for refugees. Although 2.7 million Afghans are now scattered across 79 countries, the majority of them sought refuge in neighboring or nearby countries such as Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey. Finding “durable solutions” to resolve the plight of displaced people has become a priority for the UNHCR and the international community. While voluntary repatriation remains the most preferred solution, continued instability, the threat of persecution, and the inability to access basic services prevent many refugees from returning to their country of origin (UNHCR, 2011). This is particularly the case for Afghan refugees. Since almost half of all Afghan asylum claims have been lodged in Turkey or Germany (UNHCR, 2011), reliance upon the cooperation and protection of these two governments has become critical.Due to its unique geographical location, Turkey has been a key transit country for migrants. UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Francois Crepeau, noted in his 2012 Human Rights Council report that Turkey has become a hub, particularly for migrants from Asia, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and Northern Africa. Many refugees cross over Turkey on their way to Europe. It is estimated that approximately 55,000 migrants crossed from Turkey into Greece via the Evros River in 2011 (UNHCR in Turkey: Facts and Figures, 2010). Unfortunately, cooperation between the EU and Turkey to address the issue of these undocumented crossings has primarily focused on securing the border rather than addressing the needs of those migrating. In the last two decades, economic growth and political stability have strengthened Turkey’s appeal as a destination for migrants and asylum-seekers instead of a mere transit country. Continuing upheaval in neighboring countries such as Iraq and Syria has also added to the large influx of asylum seekers and refugees. By the end of 2011, UNHCR had processed 35,000 individuals as a “population of concern” in Turkey and this figure does not include the approximate 200,000 Syrian “guests” now living in camps along its southern border (UNHCR, 2011; Davutoğlu, 2012). Turkey’s geo-political position in the region is significant, and its support of the UNHCR’s goal to seek durable solutions for the thousands who migrate through the area is necessary. However, due to its current migration and border management policies and practices, those who find their way inside Turkey are often caught in a tenuous mixture of uncertainty and bureaucratic entanglements. This article seeks to examine, in particular, the plight of Afghan refugee women who have been caught between Turkey’s internal migration policies and international community’s reluctance to host their resettlement. A team consisting of a scholar-practitioner, two graduate students, and one translator researched how complex humanitarian experiences and exposure to war affected the emotional well-being of Afghan women in their home countries, during their migration to Turkey, upon their arrival in the Turkish city of Van and later during their second displacement to Mersin. In order to conduct this research, focus groups and individual interviews were conducted in the city of Mersin in 2012. A total of 20 Afghan refugee women participated in this project. The women who participated in the project were selected because (a) they had fled from Afghanistan due to the violence and war between 2006 and 2011, (b) they had chosen to come to Turkey and currently awaited resettlement to a third country, and (c) they had survived two earthquakes in Van and were re-settled again in Mersin1. Research analysis indicated that as one of the receiving countries, Turkey has not been particularly flexible throughout this vulnerable group’s migration process. Turkey’s internal border management and migration policies, along with the international community’s reluctance to permanently resettle Afghans have negatively and repeatedly impacted the lives of these refugees.

'For the first time in decades, ‘Arab revolutions’, ushered in by the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian experiments, make it possible to seriously envision a phasing out of the autocratic machinery in the Middle East and North Africa. Whatever the end results of this awakening, the glimpse at a post-authoritarian era has already affected domestic and international political dynamics, if only by anticipation. Future is impossible to forecast, since the forces of resistance to change remain, but what can't be possibly questioned is that the region is undergoing profound transformations. While avoiding too speculative tendencies, it is this very change that the multidisciplinary team formed around the project leader proposes to look at, by analysing the double impact of the ‘revolutionary’ processes, first on the national politics of the Arab states and second on the international relations between the region and the EU, with due consideration to other key regional players, Turkey and Iran. On the Arab political scene, transformations imply new strategies on the part of actors: while the profile of the so called “twitter generation” remains largely unknown, former ruling parties go through a recycling process; Islamist trends are allowed to adapt their oppositional agenda, facing a leftist social rhetoric which may find itself reinvigorated. At the international level, if Arab elected politicians start to genuinely represent the will of their constituencies, they are also likely to be less complacent than their autocratic predecessors. Moreover, Turkey, that has been assuming a growing regional role, is likely to turn these changes into opportunities, while Iran will have to rethink its policy. Beyond inter-state relations, the evolving migratory system, changing symbolic status of Europeans stemming from Muslim background and shifting investment logics are among the transformations that the international research team, comprising of 15 researchers, is looking to capture.'

This interdisciplinary project investigates the transformation of Shii Islam in the Middle East and Europe since the 1950s. The project examines the formation of modern Shii communal identities and the role Shii clerical authorities and their transnational networks have played in their religio-political mobilisation. The volatile situation post-Arab Spring, the rise of militant movements such as ISIS and the sectarianisation of geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East have intensified efforts to forge distinct Shii communal identities and to conceive Shii Muslims as part of an alternative umma (Islamic community). The project focusses on Iran, Iraq and significant but unexplored diasporic links to Syria, Kuwait and Britain. In response to the rise of modern nation-states in the Middle East, Shii clerical authorities resorted to a wide range of activities: (a) articulating intellectual responses to the ideologies underpinning modern Middle Eastern nation-states, (b) forming political parties and other platforms of socio-political activism and (c) using various forms of cultural production by systematising and promoting Shii ritual practices and utilising visual art, poetry and new media. The project yields a perspectival shift on the factors that led to Shii communal mobilisation by: - Analysing unacknowledged intellectual responses of Shii clerical authorities to the secular or sectarian ideologies of post-colonial nation-states and to the current sectarianisation of geopolitics in the Middle East. - Emphasising the central role of diasporic networks in the Middle East and Europe in mobilising Shii communities and in influencing discourses and agendas of clerical authorities based in Iraq and Iran. - Exploring new modes of cultural production in the form of a modern Shii aesthetics articulated in ritual practices, visual art, poetry and new media and thus creating a more holistic narrative on Shii religio-political mobilisation.