Top-down secular nationalism failed in Iran because religion saturated daily life

Evidence

A second notable feature of Iranian nationalism has been its conflation with religion. Given the prominence of religion in the private and public lives of the vast majority of Iranians, strictly secular nationalist ideologies have never had much popular appeal. Thus, for example, while the secularizing efforts of the Pahlavi period (1925–79) reduced the clergy’s role in the country’s educational, legal, and charitable institutions, they could hardly diminish the influence of religion in the daily lives of the vast majority of the people. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1748

Categorization

• XREF: Supports a hypothesis relevant to the reader’s book: ideological coherence with pre-existing cultural commitments constrains which manufactured identities take hold. — connects to: Political Islam’s rise depended on the collapse of secular nationalism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 312; Secular nationalism failed because it was a middle-class ideology serving its own class — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 327; Failed secular ideologies leave religion to fill the political vacuum (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Political Islam’s rise depended on the collapse of secular nationalism #corroborates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 312
• Failed secular ideologies leave religion to fill the political vacuum #corroborates (0.85)
• Islamism rose from secular nationalist failure, left weakness, and economic crises #corroborates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 323
• Secular nationalism failed because it was a middle-class ideology serving its own class #qualifies (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 327
• Scholarly focus on elites and modernization was swept away overnight in Iran #complicates (0.75) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 142