The Formation of Modern Kurdish Society in Iran

This event, as part of the LSE Middle East Centre's Kurdish Studies Series, will be the launch of Marouf Cabi's latest book The Formation of Modern Kurdish Society in Iran: Modernity, Modernization and Social Change 1921-1979 published by Bloomsbury Publishing.

Although the Kurds have attracted widespread international attention, Iranian Kurdistan has been largely overlooked. This book examines the consequences of modernity and modernisation for Iran's Kurdish society in the 20th century. Marouf Cabi argues that while state-led modernisation integrated the Kurds in modern Iran, the homogenisation of identity and culture also resulted in their vigorous pursuit of their political and cultural rights.

Focusing on the dual process of state-led modernisation and homogenisation of identity and culture, Cabi examines the consequences of modernity and modernisation for the socioeconomic, cultural, and political structures as well as for gender relations. It is the consequences of this dynamic dual process that explains the modern structures of Iran's Kurdish society, on the one hand, and its intimate relationship with Iran as a historical, geographical, and political entity, on the other.

Using Persian, Kurdish and English sources, the book explores the transformation of Kurdish society between the Second World War and the 1979 Iranian Revolution, with a special focus on the era of the 'White Revolution' during the 1960s and 1970s.

Marouf Cabi is a historian focusing on Iran and its ethnic structures from World War II to present day. His most recent articles include “The Roots and the Consequences of the Iranian Revolution: A Kurdish Perspective” (2020) and “The Duality of Official and Local: Historical and Intellectual Foundations” (2021) both published in Middle East Studies. His PhD (2019) thesis explores the impact of the modernisation of Iran on twentieth-century Kurdish society. He has taught both undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Introduction to Middle Eastern History and Middle Eastern Cultural and Literary Contexts at the University of St Andrews. He also regularly presents his research in Kurdish and Iranian communities in Europe. For more on his works see https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7259-4504.

Robert Lowe is Deputy Director of the Middle East Centre and co-convenor of the Centre’s Kurdish Studies Series. His main research interest is Kurdish politics, with particular focus on the Kurdish movement in Syria. Robert was Manager and Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House from 2001–2010. He held a Research Fellowship from The Leverhulme Trust from 2008 to 2010 and was an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, from 2008 to 2010.

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