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THE AYATOLLAHS' DEMOCRACY By: Hooman Majd
W W Norton & Co Inc
September 2010
On Sale: September 20, 2010
282 pages ISBN: 0393072592 EAN: 9780393072594 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A New York Times best-selling author offers a personal, candid tour of the political and social landscape in Iran. Hooman Majd offers a dramatic perspective on a country with global ambitions, an elaborate political culture, and enormous implications for world peace. Drawing on privileged access to the Iranian power elite, Majd argues that despite the violence of the disputed 2009 elections, a group of influential ayatollahsβincluding a liberal, almost-secular oppositionβstill believes in the Iranian republic; for them, βgreenβ represents not a revolution but a civil rights movement, pushing the country inexorably toward democracy, albeit a particular brand of βIslamic democracy.β With witty, candid, and stylishly intelligent reporting, Majd, himself the grandson of an esteemed ayatollah, introduces top-level politicians and clerics as well as ordinary people (even Jewish community leaders), all expressing pride for their ancient heritage and fierce independence from the West. In the tradition of Jon Lee Andersonβs The Fall of Baghdad, The Ayatollahsβ Democracy is a powerful dispatch from a country at a historic turning point.
 Media BuzzDiane Rehm Show - NPR - September 20, 2010
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