The Ayatollahs' Democracy: An Iranian Challenge

When the Iranian elections of 2009 turned violent, many in the West predicted a "green revolution," a popular uprising that would topple the ayatollahs. But New York Times best-selling author Hooman Majd argues that despite the turmoil of the disputed elections, a group of influential religious leaders-including a liberal, almost-secular opposition-still believes in the Islamic Republic; for them, "green" represents not a revolution but a civil rights movement pushing the country inexorably toward democracy, albeit a particular brand of "Islamic democracy."

Majd's first book, The Ayatollah Begs to Differ (a Los Angeles Times and Economist best book of 2008), asked, "Who are the Iranians?" The Ayatollahs' Democracy asks, "What do they want?" Opening with a dramatic recounting of 2009 elections, Majd launches into a chilling description of the sometimes-Orwellian bureaucracy that runs the Iranian government. Drawing on privileged access to the power elite, Majd. himself the grandson of an esteemed ayatollah, explores the paradoxes of the Iranian democratic psyche, showing why the country has proven so consistently vexing on issues ranging from its nuclear ambitions to its thirty-year cold war with the United States and Israel.

Drawing readers into the mosques, where mullahs give speeches while learning on AK-47s, and into the halls of government, where government officials speak candidly (and sometimes with absurd opacity) about censorship, violence, and international politics, The Ayatollahs' Democracy reveals in Iran a Shia population believing itself persecuted by the world, and a fiercely indepedent revolutionary generation-heirs to Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire-attempting to establish a worldwide presence. Controversial in airing defiant Iranian nationalist positions on nuclear technology and other issues, Majd's writings are hugely helpful to Western readers in explaining the complexities of the conflict between Iran and a suspicious West.

Born in Tehran but educated in England and America, Hooman Majd is the author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ. He has written for GQ, Newsweek, the New York Times, The New Yorker, the New Republic, and many other publications. He lives in New York City and travels regularly to Iran.