1. The drugs assemblage, Part I: 2. A genealogy of drugs politics: opiates under the Pahlavi; 3. Drugs, revolution, war; 4. Reformism and drugs: formal and informal politics of harm reduction; 5. Crisis as an institution: the Expediency Council; Part II: 6. The anthropological mutation of methamphetamines; 7. The maintenance of disorder; 8. Drugs and populism: Ahmadinejad and grassroots authoritarianism.
Offers new and cutting-edge research on the role of drugs in Iranian society and government. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Maziyar Ghiabi is an Italian/Iranian social scientist, ethnographer and historian, currently a lecturer at the University of Oxford and Titular Lecturer at Wadham College. Prior to this position, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Paris School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) and a member of the Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire des Enjeux Sociaux (IRIS). After finishing his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Ca' Foscari Venice, he obtained a Doctorate in Politics at the University of Oxford (St Antony's College) where he was a Wellcome Trust Scholar in Society and Ethics (2013–17). His interest falls at the crossroads of different disciplinary and intellectual fields, from medical anthropology to politics to modern social history across the Middle East and the Mediterranean. He is the editor of Power and Illicit Drugs in the Global South (2018).
'Maziyar Ghaibi's book is a fascinating study of the politics and
lifeworld of illicit drugs, one that reveals a great deal about the
paradoxical nature of politics in the Islamic Republic. Empirically
rich and analytically rigorous, this first comprehensive account of
drug politics in Iran is likely to remain a standard text.' Asef
Bayat, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
'A refreshing and rare on-the-ground analysis of Iranian lived
politics through the prism of drugs. With a rare depth and width of
archival research and discourse analysis, Ghiabi brings us a unique
combination of exquisite storytelling, inter-disciplinary inquiry,
and ethnographic possibilities. Situated in a global
perspective, Drugs Politics offers a fresh alternative
to exceptionalist and oft-essentializing trends in
studying Iran. A tremendous achievement toward a much needed
holistic understanding of policy, Iran, and life itself.' Orkideh
Behrouzan, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London and author of Prozak Diaries: Psychiatry and
Generational Memory in Iran
'This is a landmark study, an eye-opener for those who still
associate the Islamic Republic with a harshly punitive stance on
narcotics. Iran, a society in which opium was traditionally
integrated into life, has in recent decades been hit by a wave of
synthetic drugs - heroin, meth and crack - that are now massively
used by the down and out as well as by its globalized, anomic
youth. Given wide access to official policy makers, Ghiabi tells
the story of how the authorities of the Islamic republic have dealt
with this problem by opting for harm reduction rather than
criminalization, how they abandoned the shah's unimaginative
American-style 'war on drugs' and, working with NGOs and
international organizations, adopted a pragmatic, neo-liberal
approach that mixes draconian measures against dealers with a
compassionate, welfare-focused approach vis-à-vis users. Anyone
curious about Iran's innovative approach to drugs should read this
deeply informed, engaging book.' Rudi Matthee, University of
Delaware
'With historical sweep and ethnographic insight, Ghiabi makes the
politics of drug consumption and addiction visible to audiences
which have preferred to observe these matters from above and afar.
His tale of drug politics in the Islamic Republic will not only be
surprising for most Iranians, but also crafts a provocative lens
with which to rethink our views on state-society dynamics across
the world.' Kevan Harris, University of California, Los Angeles and
author of A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in
Iran
'In this comparatively informed study, Maziar Ghiabi untangles the
ironies and ambiguities of Iranian drug policies before and after
the revolution of 1979. Based on rigorous fieldwork, this book is
the foundational text for future research on Iran's drug problems.'
Houchang Chehabi, Boston University
'Through rigorous archival investigation and courageous
ethnographic inquiry, Maziyar Ghiabi traces the history of public
responses to the drug epidemic in Iran and analyzes the current
challenges of its management. Illuminating the tensions between
punitive and reformist approaches, he provides a fascinating
account of the Islamic Republic's government of crises.' Didier
Fassin, Princeton University, New Jersey
'[Ghiabi] has done some remarkable field work, interviewing addicts
and officials at the highest and lowest levels of society to
produce a vivid dissection of the Iranian body politic in all its
humanity, its saints and sinners.' Antony Wynn, Asian Affairs
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