Visiting speaker: Dr Maziyar Ghiabi - 'Drugs Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran'

What is the place of illegal substances in the politics of modern Iran? How have drugs affected the formation of the Iranian state and its governmental interventions vis a vis critical security and health challenges? And how have governmental attempts at controlling and regulating illicit drugs affected drug consumption and 'addiction'? By answering these questions, Maziyar Ghiabi suggests that the Islamic Republic of Iran's image as an inherently conservative state is not only misplaced and inaccurate, but in part a myth. In order to dispel this myth, he skilfully combines ethnographic narratives gathered following public officials and vivid field observations from 'under the bridge', with archival material from the pre- and post-revolutionary era, statistics on drug arrests and interviews with medical professionals. The lecture is based on Maziyar's recently published book Drugs Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which was described by Asef Bayat as 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'. The book is also available Open Access.

Bio:
Maziyar Ghiabi is a Postdoctoral Research at the Drugs and (Dis)Order at School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Prior to this post Maziyar was a Departmental Lecturer at the University of Oxford and a Titular Lecturer at Wadham College; and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris).  Maziyar obtained his doctorate in Politics (2017) and MPhil (2013) at St Antony's College at Oxford supported by a Wellcome Trust scholarship in Society & Ethics. He is author of several publications, including two books: Drugs Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and Power and Illicit Drugs in the Global South (Routledge, 2018). He sits on the Editorial Boards of Third World Quarterly, the Journal of Social History of Drugs and Alcohol (Chicago University Press), and the Journal for Illicit Economies and Development (LSE Press).