Many manifestations of modern human life changed after the age of enlightenment in Europe, according to anthropocentrism and subjectivism. As a natural result of the renaissance and with the weakening of “essentialism”, concepts such as “autocracy of the state” and “the divine right of the kingdom” were questioned in the field of politics, and new approaches to the why and how of governments emerged. In modern societies, all people are considered citizens and instead of being “obligatory”, they are now “entitled”.
Following several developments in the sphere of thought, civil developments and numerous revolutions took place in the world, which laid the foundation for social, scientific and economic developments. Although at the beginning, many of these social movements were accompanied by violence, and there are numerous historical examples, such as the French Revolution, the Algerian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, the Vietnam War, etc., which show that at times, violence is the only way to seriously fight against domination. Powers have been, but in recent decades, we have seen a change of attitude in this field, which shows that a large number of new popular movements, all over the world, have spread based on civil resistance of “non-violence”, which are shaping history in a new way. Basically, we can say that so far, the great non-violent movements have changed the political landscape of dozens of countries around the world.
In Iran as well, factors such as studying in Europe and getting familiar with the progress of the Western world in the modern era, caused the “awakening of Iranians” and initiated important movements such as the “constitutional movement”. These movements often fought against authoritarian and authoritarian systems with a political goal. In this regard, later non-violent movements such as “Revolution 1357”, “Green Movement” and “Women, Life, Freedom” movement can also be considered as the continuation of the modernization process and efforts to create democracy in Iran.
Currently, we are witnessing a disturbing new wave of rising authoritarianism around the world. This slide towards authoritarianism is exactly what has motivated many popular movements to rise up to defend democracy and basic human rights. Also, the increasing role of technology in life and the emergence of digital authoritarianism along with environmental crises is a cause for double concern. It seems that the era of information technology, the Internet and artificial intelligence, although it has created a different and sometimes more powerful form of social communication, but authoritarian powers use the same tools to monitor, control, obstruct political opposition, publish biased content and to neutralize People’s movements use
In such a situation and against authoritarian powers, awareness and education will play an important role in supporting people and democracy. Therefore, this collection is trying to help the dynamics of this discourse by using up-to-date and reliable sources and research in the field of non-violent movements and introducing their philosophy, especially for the Persian-speaking audience.
Using the opinions and views of the young generation, who were mostly born after the 1357 revolution and have lived with the demands of digital life and globalization of societies, and therefore have a new look at issues, will be the main driver of this collection. However, we will also use the opinions and worldviews of seasoned experts in this field, who will always enlighten our way.
Our emphasis in awareness raising, news coverage, producing articles and researches is to maintain “honesty”. Because we are well aware, the civil society of Iranians is tired of years of trickery, deceit and lies, exaggerations, fleeting emotions, foolishness and demagogic slogans. We will also try to ensure that the materials presented by us are both theoretical and useful for researchers, and have pragmatic and practical aspects that the general public can use.
We hope that our efforts will help the civil society of Iranians, however small, and will be useful for building a bright future for Iran, with the least amount of violence.
