Fada'i Guerrilla Praxis in Iran, 1970 - 1979

The Iranian People’s Fada’i Guerrillas have received little dedicated scholarly investigation in the shadow of the Iranian Revolution. This unique collection combines scholarly analysis of the movement, with first-hand accounts from those within the movement, in order to shed light on the experiences, organisation and history of this group during the 1970’s. The volume is partly composed of eyewitness accounts from veteran Fada’i members on themes such as everyday life in safehouses, the activities of the small but active Fada’i representation abroad, the experience of Fada’i men and women who were subject to long imprisonment in the 1970s or perspectives on military organisation. Alongside these accounts are scholarly investigations into the various aspects in the history of the organisation, which cover elements such as its ideological foundations and political orientation, the importance of the Iranian labour movement in Fada’i thought and praxis and the impact of guerrilla activism in the arts.

Weaving together scholarly narratives with memoirs and reflections by women and men active in 1970s Iran’s guerrilla movement. This book reconstructs the lived experience of a political generation whose heroic exploits and tragic mistakes helped pave the way for a revolution that destroyed them along with the dictatorship they fought., A unique collection to detail the endurance of women and men in the guerrilla movement in the 1970s in Iran. The rich historical theorization of this movement frames the personal narratives; thus, the book brings to life the story of the left beyond Iran into the transnational context of revolutionary resistance movements.

Touraj Atabaki is Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History and Professor Emeritus of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at Leiden University, the Netherlands.Nasser Mohajer is an independent scholar of modern Iranian history. He studied Sociology in the United States and History and Economics in France.Siavush Randjbar-Daemi is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews, UK.