The Afghan Shi’i Movement: Revolutionary Politics and Global Islam

With Prof. Robert Crews

The leftist coup in Afghanistan in 1978 and the Iranian revolution of 1979 unleashed a radical political movement among the Afghan Shia. Since 2001, this movement has achieved new momentum, and Afghan Shi’i activism has become central both to Afghan national politics and to global Shi’ism. This talk examines how Afghan Shi’i elites imagined a revolutionary project that would transform Islam and the Afghan nation – and explores how this project continues to shape the wider region today.

Prof. Robert D. Crews is an historian whose research and teaching interests focus on Afghanistan, Central and South Asia, Russia, Islam, and Global History. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he received an MA from Columbia University and a PhD degree in History from Princeton University. His work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The New York Times. His course offerings include “The Global Drug Wars,” “The Islamic Republics: Politics and Society in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan,” and “Modern Islamic Movements.” His latest research project explores Shia politics in Afghanistan.

Co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the Institute for Middle East Studies, and the Central Asia Program