On 8 February 1971, Marxist revolutionaries attacked the gendarmerie outpost at the village of Siyahkal in Iran's Gilan province. Barely two months later, the Iranian People's Fada'i Guerrillas officially announced their existence and began a long, drawn-out urban guerrilla war against the Shah's regime.
In Call to Arms, Ali Rahnema provides a comprehensive history of the Fada'is, beginning by asking why so many of Iran's best and brightest chose revolutionary Marxism in the face of absolutist rule. He traces how radicalised university students from different ideological backgrounds morphed into the Marxist Fada'is in 1971, and sheds light on their theory, practice and evolution. While the Fada'is failed to directly bring about the fall of the Shah, Rahnema shows they had a lasting impact on society and they ultimately saw their objective achieved.
| ISBN: | 9781786079855 |
| Publication date: | 7th January 2021 |
| Author: | Ali Rahnema |
| Publisher: | Oneworld Academic an imprint of Oneworld Publications |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 505 pages |
| Series: | Radical Histories of the Middle East |
| Genres: |
Far-left political ideologies and movements Political oppression and persecution Revolutionary groups and movements Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions Political science and theory Middle Eastern history History |