Reading Aziz's Notebook in 2013

A contextual review of Aziz's Notebook: At the Heart of the Iranian Revolution by Chowra Makaremi, written during the 25th year anniversary of the 1988 prison massacres in Iran.[First paragraph of article follows] Aziz’s Notebook speaks to us through the voices of the dead, with memories refracted through other memories. What ensues is a single narrative, one of absence, vio- lence, imprisonment, execution and exile pieced together from different perspectives. We are led into the lives of two sisters, whose political affiliations cause their even- tual executions in a post-revolutionary Iran. This is an Iran rife with chaotic power struggles between the (then) newly founded Islamic Republic and opposition activists

Secretly familiar : public secrets of a post traumatic diaspora

In 1979, the socio-­political landscape of Iran was transformed beyond recognition. After years of conflict between the Shah and a myriad of political opposition groups, it seemed that the people had indeed triumphed over an authoritarian monarch. As is now widely known, their short lived victory transformed into a systematic programme of terror that turned back on and attacked those that the Islamic Republic deemed contrary to its values. The ‘bloody decade’ of the 1980s saw thousands of executions and disappearances under the cloak of the war with neighbouring Iraq. The records of these massacres are still largely unreliable and/or incomplete. The programme of terror in question, that ensued and persists up to the present day, has instigated a sprawling transnational Diaspora with a familiar but rarely divulged public secret. My doctoral thesis comprises two main parts in relation to these events. They are connected by the running theme of alternative narratives of past violence, and a post-­traumatic political activism. This is an intimate ethnography that examines global processes (revolution, Diaspora, transnational activism) from the vantage point of local and particular histories of Lur, former Fadaiyan guerilla fighters in Oslo. In the second part of this work, these histories are located within the collective movement of the Iran Tribunal, a literal attempt to make secrets public and to bring together subjective experiences of violence into a truth-‐telling process. Opening up a new space for critical reflection, this study proposes an alternative lens of analysis of tumultuous historical processes. With regards to their actors, efforts are made to better understand how lives and narratives are ordered around the characteristic disorder of violence, fear and Diaspora itself, and how subjective traumas manifest into collective, and in this case transnational, movements. My ethnography of disordered and interrupted lives works to inform studies of such critical contemporary realities as well as to ethnographically introduce the Iranian Diasporas’ public secret of violence for wider anthropological enquiry, and to contribute towards its critical analysis

Introduction - « Desire for justice, desire for law: an Ethnography of Peoples’ Tribunals »

International audienceIn recent decades, questions of impunity have become key contemporary topics and major policy challenges on issues of political participation and legitimacy, both in postconflict situations and in liberal democracies. The fight against impunity has taken on a cataclysmic role in rights-driven movements, marking what Karen Engle (2015) identifies as a "turn to criminal law" and a response to issues ranging from economic injustices, to environmental devastation, and even to contexts of genocide. However, this reframing of political and legal action is accompanied by significant challenges. Among the most substantial issues are the reality that not all actors can be brought to court; that advocates often face the absence of a competent legal arena, including trained, recognized, and credible representation; and, not least, the lack of the necessary laws or political will to exercise judgment over powerful entities like governments or corporate organizations

Special Series « States of Impunity », Open Democracy, May 2015

International audienceIn contexts of impunity, where conflict, state repression and the colossal challenge of taking on powerful perpetrators offer no hope for transition, how can we expect accountability to be realized? In this four-part series, a range of scholars and practitioners share their insights on the internal workings of power, truth and justice, in situations where forecasting is difficult, and conflicts are ongoing. What does justice look like outside of state-endorsed institutional processes, be they national or international? How do these truth-seeking initiatives challenge hegemonic narratives? Contributors examine contexts which tackle, head on, obstacles of impunity and denial, looking to understand how silenced but shared experiences of violence are transformed into public knowledge and acknowledgement. How and when does the fight against impunity open up an arena for action and change? This conversation builds on an international workshop, "Truth telling and truth seeking in contexts of impunity", supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and TEPSIS Research Programme

Special Series « States of Impunity », Open Democracy, May 2015

International audienceIn contexts of impunity, where conflict, state repression and the colossal challenge of taking on powerful perpetrators offer no hope for transition, how can we expect accountability to be realized? In this four-part series, a range of scholars and practitioners share their insights on the internal workings of power, truth and justice, in situations where forecasting is difficult, and conflicts are ongoing. What does justice look like outside of state-endorsed institutional processes, be they national or international? How do these truth-seeking initiatives challenge hegemonic narratives? Contributors examine contexts which tackle, head on, obstacles of impunity and denial, looking to understand how silenced but shared experiences of violence are transformed into public knowledge and acknowledgement. How and when does the fight against impunity open up an arena for action and change? This conversation builds on an international workshop, "Truth telling and truth seeking in contexts of impunity", supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and TEPSIS Research Programme