The Loneliest Revolution: A Memoir of Solidarity and Struggle in Iran

by Ali Mirsepassi

In October 1978, a day that started like any other for Ali Mirsepassi – full of anti-Shah protests – ended in near death. He was stabbed and dumped in a ditch on the outskirts of Tehran for having spoken against Khomeini. In this account, Mirsepassi digs up this and other painful memories to ask: How did the Iranian revolutionary movement come to this? How did a people united in solidarity and struggle end up so divided? In this first-hand account, Mirsepassi deftly weaves together his insights as a sociologist of Iran with his memories of provincial life and radical activism in 1960s and 1970s Iran. Attentive to the everyday struggles Iranians faced as they searched for ways to learn about and make history despite state surveillance and censorship, The Loneliest Revolution revisits questions of leftist failure and Islamist victory and ultimately asks us all to probe the memories, personal and collective, that we leave unspoken.

256 pages, Paperback

Published March 31, 2023

Reviews

[Harry Rodgers · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible book. Moving, poignant and informative. It gives the reader and intimate look into the everyday life of pre-revolution Iran without a Tehran focus, and the conditions which gave rise to it. It goes on to explore the ways in which complex political aims and ideologies compete both publicly (in the case of the Irani left / islamic movements) but also privately (in how the individual constructs their own political viewpoint and desires for a post-revolution future).

The concept of Ghorbat (that of being a stranger, or somehow out of place in Farsi), is interwoven throughout the book in a very meaningful way too. Though not made explicit, aside from a few short lines here and there, the sense of Ghorbat throughout the memoir is tangible.

Mirsepassi speaks about the interlocutors of his memory, even those he would later go on to disagree with, with a real level of care. He portrays the patchwork of people who were involved in the revolutionary project compellingly and honestly.

The work gave me a lot to think about in regards to how revolutionary projects, political movements are rarely unified and the care that needs to be taken to try and imagine more for the future of a movement, a people and a nation. Highly recommended for anyone looking to familiarise themselves with Iranian history and culture, the 1979 revolution or revolutionary projects in general, and how personal lives become deeply affected and moved by large-scale political action and political conflict.

[The New Arab]

Ali Mirsepassi's memoir is an account of the convulsed years leading up to the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Through Ali's testimony, we learn how jostling political contests ended up dividing a seemingly unified revolutionary movement. Read The New Arab's review here: https://www.newarab.com/features/inte...

[Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is astonishing that one feels strangeness in one’s own country! I felt so close to the author by reading his memoir! It is true that Iranian people lives have been torn to pieces that isn’t easy to patch back together!

[Chris Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent