Iranian political view of Western culture as toxic
Gharbzadegi (Persian: غربزدگی) is a pejorative Persian term translated among other ways[1] as ‘Westernized’, ‘West-struck-ness’,[2] ‘Westoxification’.[3] The term implies both that Iran is "intoxicated" (zadegi) with the West (from Arabic غَرْب ḡarb), but also a victim of the West's "toxins" or disease. The "intoxication or infatuation ... impairs rational judgment" so that Iran (and sometimes also the Muslim world) is prevented from perceiving the danger of the object of its infatuation -- the toxins of the West -- "moral laxity, social injustice, secularism, devaluation of religion, and obsession with money, all of which are fueled by capitalism" and result in "cultural alienation."[4] The term is used to refer to the loss of Iranian cultural identity through the adoption and imitation of Western models and Western criteria in education, the arts, and culture; through the transformation of Iran into a passive market for Western goods and a pawn in Western geopolitics.[5][6]
The phrase was first coined by Ahmad Fardid, a professor of philosophy at the University of Tehran, in the 1940s to refer to the hegemony of ancient Greek philosophy -- a different meaning from that later popularised by Al-e Ahmad.[7]
It gained common usage following the clandestine publication in 1962 of the book Occidentosis: A Plague from the West by Jalal Al-e-Ahmad.
^Cite error: The named reference Hendelman-Baavur was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Al-e-Ahmad 1982.
^Moghadam 2003, p. 158.
^"Westoxification". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
Gharbzadegi (Persian: غربزدگی) is a pejorative Persian term translated among other ways as ‘Westernized’, ‘West-struck-ness’, ‘Westoxification’. The...
ideology also included Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, who formulated the idea of Gharbzadegi—that Western culture must be rejected and fought as was a plague or an...
p. 385. ISBN 0-8160-6577-2 Al-e Ahmad, Jalal. Plagued by the West (Gharbzadegi), translated by Paul Sprachman. Delmor, NY: Center for Iranian Studies...
form the ideology of the 1979 revolution: Jalal Al-e-Ahmad's idea of Gharbzadegi—that Western culture was a plague or an intoxication to be eliminated;...
Al-e-Ahmad published a book or pamphlet called of the book Occidentosis (Gharbzadegi): A Plague from the West. Al-e-Ahmad, who was from a deeply religious...
Al-e-Ahmad clandestinely published a book or pamphlet called Occidentosis (Gharbzadegi): A Plague from the West. It "spearheaded" the search by Western educated/secular...
Jean-Paul Sartre that same year, and published Jalal Al-e Ahmad's book Gharbzadegi (or Occidentosis) in Iran.[citation needed] Shariati then returned to...
was then popularized by Jalal Al-e-Ahmad on his then widely known book Gharbzadegi, and after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, became among the core ideological...
Fundamentalist hero of the era. He was praised by Jalal Al-e-Ahmad the author of Gharbzadegi, and by Khomeini as an "heroic figure", and some believe his own objections...
1987, p. 296. Ihrig 2014, p. 128. Rafi, Mohammad "From Kulturarbeit to Gharbzadegi: A Genealogy of German Ideological Interaction with Iranian Nationalism"...
(mujahideen), shahed (martyrdom), khish (roots), enqelab (revolution) and Gharbzadegi (Western intoxication), to some modern terms and concepts like: demokrasi...
be seen as a symbol of Western cultural colonialism; Westoxication" (Gharbzadegi) or infatuation with western culture, education, art, consumer products...
secular regime. The antithesis of this idea, that Western culture was Gharbzadegi-- a plague or an intoxication that Muslims ought to eliminate from their...
Khomeini began to attack the MeK as elteqati (eclectic), contaminated with Gharbzadegi ("the Western plague"), and as monafeqin (hypocrites) and kafer (unbelievers)...
Khomeini attacked the MEK as elteqati (eclectic), contaminated with Gharbzadegi ("the Western plague"), and as monafeqin (hypocrites) and kafer (unbelievers)...
be seen as a symbol of Western cultural colonialism; Westoxication" (Gharbzadegi) or infatuation with western culture, education, art, consumer products...
wrote his most seminal work: Gharbzadegi. Originally coined as a term by Iranian philosopher Ahmad Fardid, gharbzadegi has been variously translated...
more women to Iranian parliament than Americans sent to U.S. senate. Gharbzadegi ("westoxification") or western cultural influence stubbornly remains...
The Confederation of Iranian Students in Exile and the famous pamphlet Gharbzadegi by the ex-Tudeh writer Jalal Al-e-Ahmad are also thought to have influenced...
appreciation of Eastern culture. Iran portal Intellectual movements in Iran Gharbzadegi Marty, ed. by Martin E.; Appleby, R. Scott (1996). Fundamentalisms and...
Sprachman has translated a number of Persian books into English, such as Gharbzadegi (Plagued by the West), A City Under Siege: Tales of the Iran-Iraq War...
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