Asef Bayat
Asef Bayat is professor of sociology and Middle East studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His books include “Street Politics: Poor People’s Movements in Iran” (1997), “Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East” (2013), “Revolution without Revolutionaries: Making Sense of the Arab Spring” (2017) and “Revolutionary Life: The Everyday of the Arab Spring” (2021).
Latest from Asef Bayat
From ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ to ‘Anyone Is Better Than These’
In December and January, the Islamic Republic faced the largest popular uprising in its history, which it crushed violently. In an open letter to an imprisoned Iranian sociologist, the prominent scholar Asef Bayat meditates on the significance of those protests and the future of Iran.
The Spirit of Tehran
Israel’s unrelenting bombings have shaken Tehran, upended its balance and killed hundreds of civilians. Yet the city continues to pulse with energy and its people have shown a spirit of care, resilience and quiet determination to carry on.
Jürgen Habermas Contradicts His Own Ideas When It Comes to Gaza
"It is admirable that you and your country’s political-intellectual class are adamant about sustaining the memory of that historic horror so that similar horrors will not befall the Jews. But your formulation of, and fixation on, German exceptionalism leaves practically no room for conversation about Israel’s policies and Palestinian rights."
A New Iran Has Been Born — A Global Iran
This is a movement to reclaim life. People feel that a normal life has been denied to them by a regime of elderly clerical men. These men, they feel, seem so separated from the people, and yet they have colonized their lives.