#so I'm a little suspicious of 'surface level proto comparative history and historical parallels are good thing!!' | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

envolvenuances · 2 months ago

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That video that circulates pictures of Socialist Afghanistan and Iran under Zehedi's dictatorship post USA-backed coup of 1953 as the same because women dressed in western clothing and were allowed work and study kinda pisses me off

#women in university was more common in Afghanistan for one #still common in Iran but with more comparable gender division to european or american nations that Afghanistan surpassed #USSR invasion of Afghanistan and the posterior more local government were not without flaws but #these are countries with extremely different geopolitical history especially in relation to western imperialism #the iranian family my father is friends with ended in Brazil because they were sworn of death by SAVAK #so I admit I have some very emotional reactions to idealisation of that past #I understand the general point of theocracy fundamentalist governments and misogyny I do #but they are very different history of how fundamentalists gained support and took power #to a point that make me find it odd to conflate them as one #and I do think this has consequences when the more recent state violence outbreak in Iran started getting media coverage it was so rare to #see the racial/ethnic element in them mentioned #because yes it was patriarchal and religious fundamentalist violence being enacted but it wasn't a side detail that both the worst #state slaughters and the largest popular resistance came from the largest kurdish region #like once again I'm hardly an expert in history of Asia I just know immigrants follow news and have read a little history #so I tend to expect people to have at least the same amount of information as me #but what I get is latinos who never heard of SAVAK #but who might complain of conflating Franco and Salazar and definitely will of conflating Franco and Mussolini #so I'm a little suspicious of 'surface level proto comparative history and historical parallels are good thing!!'#obviously it serves a purpose inside Humanities study but how good of distinct case studies could you make on what you're grouping

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