Saeidi, Shirin --- "Iran’s Hezbollah and citizenship politics: the surprises of religious legislation in a hybrid regime" [2018] ELECD 422; in Butenschøn, A. Nils; Meijer, Roel (eds), "The Middle East in Transition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 223

Book Title: The Middle East in Transition

Editor(s): Butenschøn, A. Nils; Meijer, Roel

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781788111126

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Iran’s Hezbollah and citizenship politics: the surprises of religious legislation in a hybrid regime

Author(s): Saeidi, Shirin

Number of pages: 26

Abstract/Description:

This chapter moves into the ambit of citizenship and politics among pro-state Hezbollah affiliates in post-2009 Iran to make the counterintuitive argument that the legislation of religion is not necessarily a fruitless effort for the state even when it fails to uniformly produce its ideal religious citizen. The contradictions and ambiguities of hybrid regimes work in different ways to produce particular types of citizens. In the Iranian case, there exists a disconnection between how autonomy and equality of Muslim citizens are legislated in Hezbollah’s cultural institutions, how autonomy and equality are theorised by the Islamic Republic’s founding fathers, and how the Muslim citizen emerged from the post-1979 Constitution. The interaction between these three different centres of power results in unpredictable citizens in quotidian life.