"Development" and "backwardness" History of these Concepts in Iran Preface The concept of "Development" in Iran has been discussed as opposed to the concept of "Backwardness". This question that why we are backward and west is progressed emerged to a great part due to the military encounter between Iran and the west1. At first, answer to this question is technical; Iranians perceived their "backwardness" in the technical, military and instrumental sense and so tried to improve the army by equipping it with the most progressive instruments. The question gradually was developed to cultural backwardness. Then, some idea have been suggested including change of alphabet, handwriting and clothes, modifying calendar and reform. This project was sought under the title of "Omran wa Abadani"; however, after the Islamic Revolution the term omran2 has replaced with tose'e3. During this period, imitating the West and following the Western model of development was seen as way to progress by some intellectuals. Malcolm Khan represents them. The idea appeared in the modernization policies of the Pahlavi dynasty4. In contrast to this trend, there was a tendency that emphasizes the necessity of independence and emancipation from colonialism considering political and economic aspects of western colonization. This tendency criticized western modernization and suggested a third way instead of imitating the west or refer to tradition. One of the first signs of this tendency can be found in "Gharb-Zadegi5" of Jalal Ale-Ahmad. And then Ali Shariati discussed a new model, following the footsteps of Franz Fanon, in his idea of "return to self". This article will discuss the history of the concept (Backwardness and Progress) in views of the most prominent Iranian intellectuals in this field. Then, it moves to introduce the idea of Westernization of Al-e Ahmad and Shariati. In the final section, it discusses development and underdevelopment in post-revolutionary Iran, and points out to the prominent aspects of the problem in Iran. In this respect, Shariati believes that we need to work on the question of “which self” after the issue of “returning to self”. Despite its importance, the question“which self” has been ignored in Iran and Shariati has set his agenda to work on it and sought an answer. In this way, he faced “humanism” and “internationalism” and asked “do we need to consider a certain and specific term of humanism when working on the question of “which self”? The answer Shariati gave to this question is strict and unquestionable: “humanism and modern internationalism… is a big lie which aims to deny our individual personality and culture so as to let us be denied and faded away in a fake and vague humanism.” 1 -It refers to the war between Iran and Russia (1804–13). - Civil construction 3 -Development 4 - Imperial State of Iran (1925–1979) 5 -Westoxification 2 1 1. Awareness to backwardness and necessity of development First question regarding "progress" and "backwardness" "What has made you more powerful than us to this extent? What are the reasons of your progress and our weakness?" (Jaubert 1967:137). This question which has been asked by Abbas Mirza (1787-1833) (the crown prince of Fat-h Ali Shah Ghajar) from Jaubert (the ambassador of France government to Iran) is one of the first statements about backwardness. Abbas Mirza who was the Iran's main military commander (Pakravan 1973) and spent the main part of his short life in war with Russia, after experiencing defeat from Russia, told Jaubert: "You know the art of governance, the art of becoming winner and the art of using all means while we have been condemned to plunge in swampy of ignorance" (Jaubert 1967:137). Then Abbas Mirza asked Jaubert to guide him to what to do and emphasized that "Iranians are eagerly ready to learn about inventions. Their traditions tell them to show or justify their mistakes or fully as a right thing." (Ibid., 147-148). This demand of Abbas Mirza has been considered as the beginning of the Abbas Mirza's series of reforms and the process of imitating from western model of progress. Although it seems that the question of Abbas Mirza and what he named the superiority of the Europe and the weakness of Iranians are affected by the Iran's army serious defeat from Russia. It seems that this question is more related to the lack of technological issues and weakness of equipment. Due to this fact, the reforms of the crown prince are more concentrated on empowering Iran from the military, technological and industrial points of view and it has less cultural features. If Abbas Mirza can be considered as the first man who spoke about the Iranian's backwardness, one should mention Mirza Fatali Akhundzade as the most significant intellectual who speak about Iranian's backwarness in the subjective and objective aspects. From his point of view, "the progress is not possible without the freedom of imaginations"(Behnam 2012:87). Problematic of cultural progress Mirza Fatali Akhundzade(1812-1878) was the starter of the European model of playwriting and one of the pioneers of new materialistic approach to philosophy in Iran (Adeamiyat 1967: :210). He was aslo one of the pioneers who criticized historiography and literary criticism in his period of time. He, as the writer of "Maktoobaat" book (1863), was one of the first thinkers who have thought about the evolution and progress. He presented some thesis such as necessity of changing Persian alphabet and the religious reform as a way of relief from backwardness. He tried to redefine some Islamic rules and Islamic laws and demanded for a religious reform and elimination of religious superstitions. Akhundzade believed in seventeen key concepts as the solutions for the country's evolution and progress such as: "Proghreh" 2 (Progress), "Parliament" and "Protestantism". He always used them in French and believed that these words cannot be translated to Persian (Akhundzade, 1985). In addition to Akhundzade (who can be considered as promoter and defender of a kind of Iranian nationalism), we can mention a thinker whose nationality and religion are seriously controversial: Seyed Jamal-e din Asad Abadai; there is no other eastern thinker could ever reach to his internationally prominent position (Adeamiyat 1967). Religious reform Seyed Jamal-edin Asad Abadi (1839-1897) is known as "the pioneer of the Eastern awakening". He is the first person who starts thinking about a collective battle against "Westernians colonials" by "Easternians" (Ibid). The complex personality of Seyed Jamal could not be reduced to an anti-colonial political activist or to a Pan-Islamist figure although he has all of these characters characteristics. His frequent travels to different countries (Afghanistan, Egypt, India, France, Ottoman Empire and England), paradoxical reports by France police about him and different reactions by political powers against him, all reveal a part of the complexity of his personality and the significance of his social role. He set the political and cultural elites of Islamic countries as his main audiences not the public and concentrates on the enlightenment of elites as the main goal not reforms on the public religious beliefs and fading religious superstitions. He stressed on the importance of "progress" and mentioned "one cannot lead people to progress through elimination of their beliefs. In contrast, it is necessary to explore and find suitable features of each religion which can lead that religion to progress". Regarding the question of backwardness, it seems that the main concern of Seyed Jamal is to find a way to combine science and Islam. He regretted that "Muslim thinkers study under the weak light of lamp till morning… but he never think even for one moment to ask himself that why when I put away the glass of this lamp, it smokes but when I put it again on its place, I dose not...". It seems that his goal is to find a way to apply knowledge and he felt sad for the existing situation of the Hekmat and Hakim among Muslims. In addition to science, he made a great effort to unite Muslims. Adopting the western model of civilization without Iranian intervention Mirza Malkam Khan(1833-1909) was an Iranian journalist (director in charge of “Ghanoon” newspaper) and politician. In spite of differences, he was one of the Seyed Jamal-edin’s friends and partners. He is also known as a follower of his other predecessors in a lecture in London: “The first issue that come to our mind in a comparison between Easternians and Europeans, is that how Europe has developed to this level of progress while the Asian nations who were promoters of first civilizations has been remained backward?”( Malkam khan 1891) He tries to answer this question in his book – “Osool-e-Taraghi” [The principles of progress] - by writing a simple and understandable text for normal people. Adopting an economic approach, he related the superior statues of great governments to “goods production” and “ability of international trades”. It seems that concessions which gave to foreigners by Iran 3 government and confronted by public opposition, is related to his aim to attract foreign investment. He who is acquaintance with the opinions of John Stuart Mill and Auguste Comte (Behnam 2002:77), concentrates on two main concepts: “Law” and “Progress”. Malkam Khan can be considered as the first person in Iran who claimed clearly that Iran’s path to progress goes through adopting the“western model of civilization”, “without any Iranian intervention”. Although Islam is not his main point of discussion, he refers to the relation between Islam and progress as a part of answer to the question of “Iran objective backwardness in comparison with western civilization”. In his lecture in London, Malkam Khan discussed that Islam is not an obstacle to progress. However, he believed that it is necessary to extract basic elements of western civilization and then represent them as originated from Islamic sources. As soon as we can prove that these elements comes from Islam, Iranian people will accept them immediately and enthusiastically (Malkam Khan1884). He believed that “Iran and Ottoman empire’s little progress” should be attributed to application of this method (Ibid). After Malkam Khan, Seyed Hasan Taghi Zade is another thinker who is famous for his idea regarding the necessity of “adopting the western model of civilization”. He, as Malkam Khan, has been blamed by public opinion for giving concessions to the Western companies. The Bomb of imitation from West Sayyed Hasan Taqizādeh(1878-1970) was a teacher, member of the parliament, statesman and contemporary politician. His main thesis is a total imitation from west from the tip of toe to the top of head. His emphasis on the necessity of a total imitation from west was significantly more than his predecessors. Even Malkam Khan (who was the first founder of “adopting the western model of civilization without Iranian intervention”), did not believed in accepting “all of the western traditions and rituals”; He believed that if somebody claimed this kind of imitation he would be a fool (Ibid., 138). But Taqizādeh in the January of 1920 in the first number of “Kaave” Magazine, wrote an article which shows his strict deep tendency to achieve progress and development through westernization: “Iran must be come westernized appearance wise, subjectively, mentally and mentally.” (Homayoun Katouzian 2010). The main goal of “The Iranian nationalist committee resident of Germany” which had been founded by Taqizādeh, as he wrote in first number of Kaave magazine, was to “accept the Europe civilization completely, to become submitted to Europe entirely, by adopting the rituals, traditions, pedagogies, sciences, industries, life style and the European issues in all aspects without any exception (expect the language)” (Behnam 2012:109). He presented the old idea of changing Persian alphabet to Latin’s ones. Taqizādeh and his followers, considered “modernization” same as “Westernization” and believed in universality of the western contemporary civilization and the necessity of inevitable trend of “Westernization” (Azerang 2002:48-49). The concepts of “Gharb-Zadegi” by Al-e-Ahmad and “Baazgasht be Khishtan” [Return to the self-] came to birth and emerged in this context. 4 2.Looking for third way: Al-e Ahmad and Shariati Jalal Al-e-Ahmad: Gharb-Zadegi Jalal Al-e-Ahmad (1923-1969) is the most prominent figure of Iranian intellectuals in the 1960s. He who came from a Shiite clergy family, ruptured from Islam completely as he joined “Tudeh party” in 1944 (Algar, 1982:10). But even this departure did not last for long time and he started criticizing his political affiliation and finally quitted the party. Then he moved away from political activities and concentrated on the literature and translations (Ibid.,11). It seems that Al-e-Ahmad paid more attention to the crucial role of religion and religion’s institution in society at the final period of his life. He went to the Haj and emphasized on the significant role of Shiite Ulama to fight against what he called “Gharb-Zadegi”. This period of his life came into prominence after Islamic Revolution and his statements frequently quoted and interpreted as his conversion to Islam. The most important book of Jalal is Westernization which is in fact a written document to address “Iranian council of culture” (1961-1962). This book is written in a very common and colloquial language and that was the reason it soon became widespread in and out of Iran and was translated to different languages and inspired many discussions in Iran. It is said that Edward Said was present at one of Jalal's speeches about westernization in the US and since Said had not coined the term "Orientalism”, it is believed he used Jalal's ideas to give birth to Orientalism. That is why his work is said to be international. We can divide the book into two parts of "East and West Dichotomy" and” post westernization". In the first part, the author referred to works of Ahmad Fardid, Khalil Maleki, Tibor Mende in "Entre la peur et l'espoir", Josué de Castro in "géographie de la faim", Seyed Fakhredin Shadman in "Cultural Civilization Seizure", and Mohamad Bagher Hoshiar in "Free Public Education) and in part two he uses Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Georges Bernanos, Ernst Jünger works. In his book, Jalal addresses the public (elite as well as the non-elite) by simple language. He intended to criticize pioneers of the idea of progress including Molkom Khan,Tabriziand Taqizade and so on. Jalal considers them as those who pave the way of westernization (Al-eAhmad 1984). His book is based on the concepts of westernization and machinism. Several point were made to explain this phenomenon. Westernization, according to Jalal, works like an infestation of weevils which eats up the wheat from inside. The bran remains intact, but it is just a shell, like a cocoon left behind on a tree. Westernization –in a more exact definitionis "the aggregate of events in the life, culture, civilization, and mode of thought of a people having no supporting tradition, no historical continuity, no gradient of trans formation, but having only what the machine brings them, it is clear that we are such a people"(Al-e-Ahmad 1984:34). In fact Westernization "characterizes an era in which we have not yet acquired the machine, in which we are not yet versed in the mysteries of its structure"(Ibid). 5 According to Jalal's definition of westernization in his first part of the book (East-West dichotomy), the East and West are not considered as two political or geographical concepts but the economic ones. Dichotomy of "hungry and full" which are believed to be based on the issues of productivity and consumption. The west is the producer and the East is the consumer of western products; in fact, the east provides the west with raw material. In this discussion, the West is considered Europe and North America, and progressed countries, and we, the East, includes Asia, Africa and all backward countries . Jalal’s definition and explanations show that the issue of westernization has not been an issue before his time. He considers the exact explanation and elaboration of the term to be carried out by the scholars; however, his perception comes from applied knowledge. He further explains that when the West was awakened from long Middle Age ignorance, it attributed the name of East on us, from Mediterranean to India. He points out to six encounters between the East and the West: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The west under the holy umbrella of the Christ. As Crusaders As merchants Under auspice of their ships full of goods In the name of preachers of Christianity In the name of preachers of civilization. In this six forms, they came to the East for the reasons above .Jalal considers Africa as the most receptive region. In the opposite, the Middle East did not undergo colonization thank to being under umbrella of Islam. Islam does not let the society to stay passive and go through colonization. Therefore, it (the Middle East) was broken into pieces which became a good laboratory for the West. Jalal also states that the West was successful and Asians were turned to goods capable of being studied. The West in his idea moved forward to the point that the East provided not only the raw material for the West but also preserved "culture” and "religion" and civilization to make themselves a proper material for the West to study and research. Jalal Al-e- Ahmad points out that there is a historical separation between East and the West. He believes that such a separation appeared three centuries ago and was based on envy and competition between East and West. It means that Iranians considered themselves deserved of all the West owns and this has been the stimulus and creating a win- win situation in first period. Iranians impression in the second period relies on regret; envy and misery of themselves in front of the West. Iranians imitate the West in various aspects such as science, research or even life styles and traditions. Exploring history, Jalal seeks to explain reasons for the superiority of the West as opposed to the backward position of the East. He attributes the most important reason of this fact to the conflict between Shiite and Sunni, and in particular establishment of Safavid dynasty, neighbor of Sunni Ottoman Empire. In his book, he explained two ways to face the West “machinism:“ 6 12- to remain a consumer to close doors to the technology and Machinism and plunge into our own traditions and national and religion rites He declines the ways mentioned above because the first way leads to westernization while the second one does not guide us to any destination and those who follow it, will accept the key role of Machinism. He instead recommends a third way. He believes that specialization takes the individuality and personality away from one and “we need to start from here”. He underscores that we need to train professionals with specific specialization. But our culture is not able to train such individuals and due to westernization the academic institutions such as schools, colleges and universities, train one that has neither personality and character nor the specialization. This human owns neither wishes, party, tradition, nor legend and fit into one of these criteria of melancholia: 1-exaggeration 2- being proud of the past 3- fabricating fake enemies and frightening the public As long as we have not manufactured Machine, we are westernized and when we manufacture the Machine, we will be haunted by Machine . It seems, Al-e- Ahmad considers westernization as “Cultural consumerism from the West” and presents religion as a tool to resist Westernization. He criticizes the clergies for working on details of the religion and avoiding Machinism while he puts emphasis on the key role of clergies in accomplishing the third way as he presented. His deep understanding about post-colonial literature, in spite of lack of any trace of it at that timen is the very important point of this writing. He had a great emphasize on subject and object in exposure of west and east; for instance, before “westernization” happen, the east and especially, Muslim and Iranians were standing at the position of subject and label the west as “pagan”. It means that they know themselves and their beliefs as true; while at the time of westernization, the criterion of evaluation is being imitated from west, too. The importance he maintains for “object of being studied” and his constant emphasize on its relation with colonialism, places him among the pioneers of “post-colonial discourse.” Yet it can be said that he plays on orientalism in some cases by means of east sociological stereotypes such as maverick eastern, lazy and ever lack of anything named city, mostly illiterate and Superstitious people, and so on. Shariati: Return to self Ali Shariati is an Iranian scholar, sociologist and intellectual of 1970s who is mostly known as “the ideological father of 1979 Islamic Republic of Iran” (Rahnema 2002); however, Iranian 7 authority has had an equivocal attitude toward him1. He was one of the most important and effective Intellectuals in the history of Iran. A decade after Jalal Al-e Ahmad (1961) proposed westernization, Shariati pursue the problematic of westernization and return of self. It is worth mentioning that Shariati did not add any significant point to the concept of westernization2; however; Shariati’s contribution is related to the way he seeks to get out of “westernization”3. Adopting the concept of additional value from Marx, he reflects on “colonialism” and notes that this is not the additional value which “fattens the capitalist”; and even further, “this additional value is not rooted into distributary work, specialty, labor division and machine”, but it is “plundering the whole sources of wealth and existence of Yellow skins, black, Muslim and the Hindu”. Instead of “production”, Shariati offers concept of “plunder” at the center of capitalism (Ibid.,165). Shariati has three texts about return to self; the first one was compiled after a speech under title of “return to self” in University of Jondi Shapoor in Ahvaz(1970); the second (after releasing from prison) was published in 33 issue of Keyhan newspaper (1976) and the third was written under title of “return to which self?” (Not published during his life time). Here our emphasis is on the first (the speech) and the third (return to which self)4. On the other hand, the “Cultural Foundation of Dr. Ali Shariati” also compiled all above texts in a book named “return”; therefore, the base of our study is “return”(1970). In this text, Shariati refers to Aime Cesar, Francis Fanon, Julius Nye ra ra, Jomo Kenyatta,Falcon, Kateb Yacine and Al-e Ahmad and knows himself as their follower. He mostly refers to Seyyed Jamal Aldin Asad Abadi among others and admires his ideas and views. On the contrary, he refers to Malcolm Khan and Taghizade and criticizes their point of views. According to Shariati, they similar to their comrades in other countries (like Ataturk), pursue to pave the way for colonialism by putting Islam away in the name of modernization (Ibid.,41). Readout the common attitude toward “return to self”, Shariati writes:” what was proposed in the last fifteen years, is readout of thesis of Aime Cesar, Francis Fanon and alike; while its readout is inefficient” (Shariati 2002:22). He immediately adds that “I believe in that thesis strongly”; but knows it as inefficient yet. And the reason of this inefficiency is that “the western speaks toward me, an eatern, in one way and towards the black Aime Cesar, in a different way”. In this respect, Shariati believes that we need to work on the question of “which self” after the issue of “returning to self”. Despite its importance, “which self” has been ignored in Iran and . One the one hand names the streets, hospitals and schools as “Shariati” and on the other hand, sometimes avoids holding his celebration. 2 In studying “westernization”, Shariati attempts to avoid mixing their feature in confrontation with west by separating two concepts: “Modernization” and “Civilization”. Modernization equals to the “westernization”; changing into a “consumer”; “materialization” and permit control of west; “Cultural alienation” and “assimilation”. “Civilization” is “evolution of power of thought, expansion of insight, depth and Gentleness of spirit, social development and making human self-awareness and Sense of responsibility”. “Modernization” happens quickly via imitation; but unlike it, civilization is totally spontaneous and it is getting free from imitation and gaining creativity and independent identity”. Modernization can be imported but civilization is not importable. 3 . The thing can not be seen in others works. 4 . There are many talks in the second text in terms of text authenticity and pressure on the writer (Rahnema,2002) 1 8 Shariati has set his agenda to work on this question and seek an answer. In this way, he faced “humanism” and “internationalism” and asks “do we need to consider one certain and specific term of humanism when working on the question of “which self”? The answer Shariati gave to this question is strict and unquestionable: “humanism and modern internationalism… is a big lie which aims to deny our individual personality and culture so as to let us be denied and faded away in a fake and vague humanism.”(Ibid.,27) Shariati further considers existing humanism to be a product of western human and believes that “we (the eastern people) distort, deny and betray ourselves as long as we try to explain ourselves in the framework of humanism while we are considered a local human as opposite to western human in the modern humanism; therefore, we need to avoid them”. The reason he recommends avoiding this separation is that he does not suppose that both sides in the comparison are equal. He points out that the comparison and relation is “a lie when it is between two sides in which one is taking everything while the other is totally giving; in another words, one is the sole producer and the other one is only a user” (Ibid.,28). One of the ways to return to self is return to our "national and ethnic character". He calls ethnic as returning to racism, fascism and tribal ignorance which is retroactive return. The other way to return to self is to focus on “historical self” or “ancient self” which is far from what we really are in Shariati’s conviction. He also believes that “the historical self can be discovered, studied and understood by the archeologists, sociologists or scientists but not our nation. The heroes, and faces along with legends in the past are not tangible and moving among the society.” In fact “Islamic civilization cutter” has made too big separation between “PreIslamic self” and “post Islamic self” that these two cannot recognize and relate to each other. In fact we need to return to the “potential existing self in the ego and conscience of society to be discovered by the elites as a “source of material and energy” and “move on” in the heart of the society. The theory of Shariati in “returning to self” lays emphasis on the key role of elites. In his point of view, the elite are responsible for the period of time they lives in and the relevant generation. Their big goal is to transfer the abnormal realities, sheltered and hidden in the heart of society and time to the Shariati further emphasizes that the elite needs to take assistance of “history” “culture and “public language” to carry out carry out responsibility when passing westernization. The elite need a common language and according to Shariati, the common language between elite and public is “religion”. Shariati also underscores that to carry out their responsibilities, the religious and non religious elite must function the same and in respect with the matter of “returning to self”, the elite come to the term of “returning to our culture”(Ibid.,13). Shariati believes that in their studies, the elite who are seeking answer for “which self” , they face the issue of “returning to Islamic culture and Islamic ideology” which results in the question of “which Islam”. He points out that “the Islam we return to must be a reformed, revised Islam which has undergone the evolutions" and he adds that "my impression toward religion is in a way that a non religious elite can rely on it."(Ibid.,11). 9 On the other hand, Shariati does not neglect the problems of westernization and returning to self and believes that after introduction of the idea of returning to self by third world elites, it went through Iran as a fashion and changed to returning to a religious historical self. Shariati, in this fashion believes that westernization outdoes this type of returning. He worries that avoiding westernization and independence justifies "ignorance". He warns that some avoid studying about western schools of thoughts, theories and human sources or blame elites of westernization with the excuse of following an “independent thinking". In this way, while Shariati criticizes the “Machinsm and bureaucracy and technocracy “and “nationalism” and “positivism”, he defends machine, bureaucrat, techniques and nation (Ibid.,243-245). In Shariati’s idea, elite can criticize the West and avoid westernization after passing two stages as follows: 1- comprehensive and deep knowledge of European culture and civilization 2- comprehensive and deep knowledge of history, sociology, culture and religion of their own (Ibid.,254) In short, to resist westernization, we need to study the West. Shariati prescribes it to improve a society. we need to follow some criteria as follows: 1- “Social and political issues are case and time sensitive. Thus, studies on one society or a period of time cannot be applied well on another society or period of time. In some cases they may be harmful and devastating rather than constructive and improving.” 2- “Issues and subjects in Western societies are politically and culturally constructed according to the relevant historical and societal circumstances of that society. Therefore, following issues and subjects of West to apply them to another society with totally different historical, cultural and societal circumstances is wasting the best opportunities, talents as well as local rites”. 3- Each and every society is in specific circumstances according to its situation in different realms such as history, culture and one cannot be intellectual by taking advantage of general knowledge of social science and so on, unless he knows the culture, society, common language of his own nation (Ibid.,305-309). In addition, being aware of the role of religion in Iran and trying to answer “returning to self” and “which self”, Shariati recommends returning to cultural Islamic self and when the issue of “which Islam” rises, he draws attentions on religious corrections in which Islam has been reformed, corrected and turned to be a progressive religion. In the coined process of “extracting and purifying the cultural sources” by Shariati, he calls the religion as one of the most important issues to work on as a cultural source. 3. Post-revolutionary era in Iran Localization and Islamization 10 After Islamic revolution emerge many attitudes about development. A wide range of these attitudes so emphasis on development as universal issue. But someone criticize these approaches and follow-up (take) two ways: 1. Someone believe to localization in development and modernization. 2. Someone believe to Islamization in development and modernization. More than three decades pass of revolution but theses later two approaches just criticize prior approaches and don’t offer and explain alternative plans and mechanisms to development. They just raise some claims like Islamic Japan Pattern or Malaysia as Islamic pattern of development. In recent years they effort to advance their ideas, for example they follow-up localization in 4th development plan (2005-2009), and in 5th development plan (2010-2015) the government is obliged to design “Islamic- Iranian model of progress”. But, according to change the government in 2013 election, it is unlikely to follow this idea. It seems that Islamization approach at the beginning of the long path, and now just deny development and modernization. This approach hasn’t clear idea about progress. As the superme leadership, ayatollah Khamenei said: "the goals, values and methods will all be rooted in Islam. That is to say, our focus is on Islamic concepts and teachings". Islamization approach use “progress” instead of “development”. This approach knows “development” as western approach of “progress”. Of course Ayatollah Khamenei says, in this case: "I selected the word "progress" carefully. I intentionally avoided the word "development". The reason is that the word "development" is a loaded term. It is accompanied by certain requirements that we may be opposed to. I do not want to take a common international term - of which people have a certain understanding and use it in the context of our own work. I will now discuss the concept that I have in mind". Conclusion To conclude, post-development is absent from debates regarding the sense of backwardness in Iran and its literature is less known. One can say that after the revolution discussions and reflections on “development” have moved out of the circle of elites and restricted to the monopoly of academia and government policies. Thus, indigenizing and Islamization are of those theories have face intellectuals’ responses. It is worth mentioning that the determining aspect of the question of development and backwardness in Iran, compared to other countries, is related to the role and status of religion. All Iranian intellectuals, religious or non-religious, have faced with the question of religion and religious tradition in their debates. However, after the Islamic Revolution and following the emergence of religious governance, these discussions gained a governmental and political echo; therefore, they can be found in the field of policy making more than the area of thinking. At the end, one can conclude that the idea of post-development as a project can be so helpful in another landscape. References Adamiyat, Fereydun 1967: Thoughts of Mirza Agha Khan Kermani. Tehran: Tahuri. (in persian) Al-e ahmad, jalal 1984: Occidentosis: a plague from the west. Press Berkeley. 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