The Ayatollahs' Democracy: An Iranian Challenge

'There are several peculiar features about writing any detailed account of the recent political events in Persia which make necessary some slight explanation. The first point is that Persian political affairs, fraught as they are with misfortune and misery for millions of innocent people, are conducted very much as a well-staged drama – I have heard some critics say, as an opéra bouffe.'
WILLIAM MORGAN SHUSTER,
THE STRANGLING OF PERSIA, 1912

So Hooman Majd introduces his story of Iran, its volatile politics, its jostling leaders. Iran is a country with global ambitions, an elaborate political culture, and enormous implications for world peace. Drawing on privileged access to the Iranian power elite, Hooman Majd shows that despite the violence of the disputed 2009 elections, a group of influential ayatollahs – including a liberal, almost secular opposition – still believe in the Iranian republic. What does it mean for the world if 'Green' represents not a revolution but a civil rights movement, pushing the country toward a particular brand of 'Islamic democracy'? And how will Iran's diversity of political positions, so often sidelined in news reporting, ultimately resolve itself?

With witty, candid, and stylishly-intelligent reporting, Hooman Majd introduces top-level politicians and clerics alongside regular Iranians, including Jewish community leaders. Whatever their position on a spectrum from liberal to hard-line, they express pride for their ancient heritage and fierce independence from the west. A personal, candid tour of the political and social landscape in Iran, The Ayatollahs' Democracy is a powerful dispatch from a country at a historic turning point.