9 - Jihadi Culture and Management (2005–2017)

Summary

As revealed by its title, Chapter 9 “Jihadi Culture and Management (2005–2017)” examines the cultural production surrounding the nostalgic, romanticized, and ambiguous concept of “jihadi culture and management” (farhang va mudīriyat-i jahādī), which has increasingly appeared in the discourse and activities of politicians, officials, bureaucrats, and activists. The concept did not simply emerge from RJ, but a deliberately constructed and carefully crafted image and narrative of it as an ideal-type revolutionary organization and its members as archetypal jihadists (jahādgarān). Former RJ members in the bureaucracy and society have promoted the concept in an effort to infuse the state and society with the exemplary attributes, norms, values, structures, and practices that RJ had allegedly possessed as a revolutionary organization. To the dismay of some former RJ members, the IRI’s factionalized elites have appropriated the concept in an attempt to mobilize and socialize voters and supporters during local and national elections.