First Paragraph: What Is the Criterion for “Left” in Today’s Iran, and Why Is It Opposed?

🔸Who is an Iranian leftist? Is anyone who speaks about social justice, the rights of minorities, the environment, and a democratic, secular, progressive system considered “left”? And if so, why should it still be held accountable for the legacy of the Soviet Union, the errors of the Tudeh Party, and what happened during the 1979 Revolution?

🔸In the radio program “First Paragraph,” Azadeh Kian, a sociologist and professor of sociology at Paris Cité University and the former director of the Social Sciences Department and the Center for Studies on Gender and Feminism at that university in Paris, along with Abbas Vali, a political theorist, sociologist, and former professor at universities in Wales and Bogazici in London, discussed the issue of “Iranian left” and its opponents among right-wing forces and among the so-called monarchist current.

🔸Read the full version of this interview by Mohammad Zarghami on the Radio Farda website.