6 - Conclusion

Summary

Chapter 6 outlines the conclusions of this investigation and highlights the lasting impacts of modern nationalist discourse on Iran. In addition, the concluding chapter looks at the most recent examples of resistance, through the agency of Iranian citizens. It also looks at contemporary politics inside Iran, and political events related to US–Iran relations with events as recent as the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in January 2020. In the case of modern Iran, the state and community have been imagined and contested, legitimized and challenged, through the interaction of the state and the people within the global context of colonialism and modernity. By appreciating the complexity of this interaction, we can hope to ascertain a better understanding of national identity in modern Iran. Thus, the book moves beyond the essentialist representation of bipolar Iranian identity, emphasizing Islam versus pre-Islamic civilization, and the more recent proclivity in scholarship to reject both identities as inauthentic.