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Following the failure of the reformist Green Movement in 2009, Iranians, especially those living in exile, have increasingly adopted the pre-Islamic identity of the Persian Empire as the basis for a cultural revolution that could bring about lasting social and political changes. Known as the Iranian Renaissance, this right-wing nationalist movement is extremely critical of Islam’s colonial misappropriation of Iran’s glorious Indo-European or Aryan heritage in the arts, sciences, and spirituality. The Iranian Renaissance is an organic, grassroots movement knit together by ideals drawn from the Gathas of Zarathustra, the precepts of great statesmen such as Cyrus and Anushiruwan, and the ethos of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. With its vision of the reconstitution of Greater Iran, the Iranian Renaissance may be the contemporary cultural movement with the most revolutionary geopolitical significance for the future of the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Its triumph could also open the p
Following the failure of the reformist Green Movement in 2009, Iranians, especially those living in exile, have increasingly adopted the pre-Islamic identity of the Persian Empire as the basis for a cultural revolution that could bring about lasting social and political changes. Known as the Iranian Renaissance, this right-wing nationalist movement is extremely critical of Islam’s colonial misappropriation of Iran’s glorious Indo-European or Aryan heritage in the arts, sciences, and spirituality. The Iranian Renaissance is an organic, grassroots movement knit together by ideals drawn from the Gathas of Zarathustra, the precepts of great statesmen such as Cyrus and Anushiruwan, and the ethos of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. With its vision of the reconstitution of Greater Iran, the Iranian Renaissance may be the contemporary cultural movement with the most revolutionary geopolitical significance for the future of the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Its triumph could also open the p