Newswise — A University of California, San Diego professor has emerged as a leading scholarly authority on voter sentiment and new media in Iran in the wake of the June 12 election in which Iran's official news agency announced that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won about two-thirds of the votes cast.
Babak Rahimi, an assistant professor of literature at UC San Diego and an expert on Islamic and Iranian studies, traveled from San Diego to Iran in March to study the impact of the Internet on Iranian electoral politics. "The most exciting type of academic fieldwork is the one led by serendipity," Rahimi wrote in a note to his UC San Diego colleagues. "I feel that what I have learned in the last few weeks is largely due to the unfolding of events or moments I least expected."
Since his arrival in Iran three months ago, Rahimi has traveled throughout the Islamic nation of about 70 million people, interviewing common citizens, political activists and those involved with new media. His research goal has been to produce a scholarly study on the role of the Internet in Iran's politics.
In an email exchange the 36-year old scholar was asked about his safety. "The only way that I feel safe here in Tehran is by staying at home " though it can be a bit difficult at times," he wrote. "Self-isolation can bring a sense of emptiness amid a Tehrani summer."
But Rahimi has not cocooned himself entirely because he continues to do his research: "My objective has been to write an article (or possibly a book) on the impact of the Internet on Iranian electoral politics."
In the meantime, he has been a calm explanatory voice on the elections, describing anti-government demonstrations and analyzing the political struggles in dozens of interviews with media outlets such as CNN, National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting Service, the Los Angeles Times and others.
Rahimi is skeptical of the government-announced results indicating that incumbent President Ahmadinejad had won re-election, but he has also maintained scholarly detachment in reporting his observations and fact-finding. For example, in the June 19 Los Angeles Times, Rahimi wrote: "One major claim of those in power is that although there is some dissent in the cities, the countryside voted solidly for Ahmadinejad, which accounts for his win. But in my pre-election fieldwork in a number of southern provinces, I observed major tensions between provincial officials "especially the local imams " and the Ahmadinejad administration in Tehran. I saw far lower levels of support for the president than I had expected. In fact, I heard some of the most ferocious objections to the administration in the rural regions, where the dwindling economy is hitting the local populations hard. As one young Bushehr shopkeeper put it: 'That idiot thinks he can buy our votes. He does not care for us.'"
In a country where two-thirds of the people are under the age of 30, Rahimi observed opposition candidates relying on the Internet to reach voters, employing Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. "The technologies not only spoke to new voters, they had the added benefit of allowing candidates and their supporters to more easily avoid scrutiny and censorship," he said.
Taking a realistic view in his Los Angeles Times article, Rahimi wrote, "It is perhaps no surprise that people who were able to express themselves more strongly during the campaign than in the past are not willing to sit back now and accept election results they believe were rigged. But it's hard to predict what will happen next. The new generation of protesters, most of them born after the 1979 revolution, believes at this point that it has the momentum, that its members are riding the crest of a powerful wave of history into a more democratic future. And though this view may seem naive to older, more cynical Iranians, no one can deny the energy of the moment."
Though primarily an Iranian/Islamic studies expert, Rahimi is also an authority on Shi'i Islam; Medieval and (early) modern Iranian culture and society; the country's public sphere, civil society; democracy and modernity.
Rahimi earned a bachelor's degree at UC San Diego and has a doctorate from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He has also studied at the University of Nottingham, where he obtained a master's degree in ancient and medieval philosophy. He also studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was a visiting fellow in the department of anthropology.
Rahimi has written numerous articles on culture, religion and politics and regularly writes on contemporary Iraqi and Iranian politics. He has been the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and he received the Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute. He also was a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington D.C., where he conducted research on the institutional contribution of Shi'i political organizations to the creation of a vibrant civil society in post-Baathist Iraq.
Rahimi expects to remain in Iran until late June when he will return to La Jolla. "If all goes well, I hope to return to Iran later in the summer staying until September," he said. Some of his recent media reports are summarized below:Election Protests and Iran's ClericsPublic Radio International, June 19 -- "Here and Now" spoke to Babak Rahimi, a professor at UCSD. He fled Iran in the 1980s after his father was assassinated, but returned this year to study the electoral process. More (http://www.pri.org/world/middle-east/election-protests-iran-clerics1437.html)Similar story in The New York Times (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/morning-skim-us-stay-out-of-iran/)Los Angeles Times (http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2009/06/iran-twitter-gitmo-uighers.html)Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2220775/)Iran: Gunshots During Interview CNN, June 17 -- Shots ring out while Kyra Phillips talks with Babak Rahimi, a UCSD professor who is in Tehran. More (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/06/17/nr.phillips.interview.shots.cnn?iref=videosearch)Inside Iran, a Rebellion That is Familiar and UnpredictableLos Angeles Times, June 18 -- Walking through central Tehran this week and taking in the shattered glass, burned garbage cans and damaged traffic signs, it was hard not to think of the 1979 revolution, when thousands of Iranians poured into the streets and called for the end of the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's regime. (Written by Babak Rahimi, an assistant professor of Iranian and Islamic studies at UCSD) More (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rahmini18-2009jun18,0,451907.story)Similar story in WiE-Mail From Iran: 'We Are In A Terrible Situation'NPR, June 17 -- On Morning Edition today, co-host Steve Inskeep spoke with Babak Rahimi of UCSD. Speaking from Tehran, Rahimi said there is an air of rebellion in the city and that the scenes and sounds remind him of when he was a boy in 1979 and the IslamiObama's Iran DilemmaMother Jones, June 15 -- The Iranian election fiasco—or coup—poses a challenge for President Barack Obama. How should he continue his policy of engagement with a regime that appears to have stolen an election so brazenly? (Quotes Babak Rahimi, a professor of Islamic studies at UCSD, who is now in Iran studying the elections) More (http://www.motherjones.com/foreign-policy/2009/06/obamas-iran-dilemma)Inside the Iranian ElectionsPBS, Opinion, June 15 -- As I watch thousands of young Iranians energetically dance to the fast beat of techno music at a major political rally, a popular slogan can be heard from the crowd: "If [the elections are] rigged, we will raise hell in Iran!" (Written by Babak Rahimi, an assistant professor of Iranian and Islamic Studies at UCSD. He has been in Iran since March to cover the elections) More (http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/524/iranian-elections.html)Similar story in New Hampshire Public Radio (http://www.nhpr.org/node/25513)
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