Laboratory for Contemporary Iranian Studies

Publications

• Book

  Ravandi-Fadai S.

  Slavery in the Modern Middle East and North Africa Exploitation and Resistance from the 19th Century - Present Day

  What is the nature of slavery as practiced and at times reintroduced over the past two centuries in the Middle East and North Africa? In spite of the rich regional diversity of the areas studied – from Morocco to the Indian Ocean to Iran – this anthology demonstrates clear commonalities across the super-region. These include the regulation of slavery by Islam and local traditions, the absence of a rigid racial hierarchy as in North American slavery, the management of the sexuality and reproductive capacity of female slaves, and views on identity and heritage among descendants of slaves. Authors also examine the economic and theological underpinnings of contemporary slavery and human trafficking.
  
  The book is among the first to focus on slavery across the Islamic world from the 19th century to the present – a period constituting the endgame of institutionalized slavery in the region but also the persistence of forms of de facto enslavement. Each chapter scrutinizes from a different vantage point – institutions, economics, the abolitionist movement, literature, folklore, and the moving image – creating a multi-dimensional picture of the phenomenon.
  
  The authors have mined government archives and statistics, memoirs, interviews, photographs, drawings, songs, cinema and television. Not only are Arabic, Persian and Turkish sources leveraged, but a variety of materials in minor and endangered languages, such as Soqotri, Balochi and Sorani Kurdish, in addition to European languages.

  
  
  
  
  

  L.: Bloomsbury, 2024.

• Article

  Раздрих М., Евграфов А. И.

  Economic diplomacy of the Russian federation in the sphere of international trade: The case of Islamic republic of Iran in context of geopolitical changes

  This article is a case study of trends in the economic diplomacy of the Russian Federation towards the Islamic republic of Iran. It represents a contribution in the discussion of inter-contentedness of economic and political goals. Due to the conditions in contemporary political economy — sanctions, protectionism and reemergence of state capitalism in geoeconomic projects, it is difficult to draw a clear line between economic and political goals. Economic diplomacy is thus defined by the authors in its broad sense: as a nexus of political and economic tools to achieve the political and economic goals. In the case of Iranian-Russian relations, the western sanctions and perception of military threat, as well as threat to the stability of the governments, also played a role in expansion of economic relations, as well as structure of trade, as the two states seek solutions to develop their economies under external pressures and keep access to key markets. The article defines the main areas of action in Russian economic diplomacy towards Islamic Republic of Iran: trends in the scale of trade, as well as its structure and implications of this data for the Russian-Iranian relations. It then attempts to discern the main trends in a timeframe from 2014 to 2023 and define the main factors influencing the change of structure and scale of trade between two partners, as well as make predictions for the future, based on the actions of Russian Federation and the signing of free-trade agreement between the Eurasian economic union (EEU) and Islamic Republic of Iran.

  Economy of the Middle East. 2024. P. 34-46.

• Book chapter

  Lana Ravandi-Fadai.

  'Ask Her, She is Not Afraid To Tell You': Sexual Enslavement of Yezidi Women by ISIS: causes and aftermath

  In bk.: Slavery in the Modern Middle East and North Africa Exploitation and Resistance from the 19th Century - Present Day. L.: Bloomsbury, 2024. Ch. 10.