Abstract
Iran today is facing the challenge of a collective memory crisis. The main symptom of the crisis is a situation in which the memories, historical narratives, or shared symbols of the past are in dispute, doubted, forgotten, or distorted in such a way that social solidarity, collective identity, or collective narrative is disturbed or broken. After providing basic definitions of collective memory and an initial conceptual framework, the article analyses five specific examples in contemporary Iranian history over which there are very different interpretations and tensions within society, namely: the fall of the Mossadegh government in 1953; the 1979 revolution; the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war; the issue of the hijab; and the status of the 1925-1941 Reza Shah Pahlavi period. The crisis of collective memory must be understood in relation to a larger crisis between government and society that has engulfed various areas of Iranian society. Collective memory is both a product of this crisis between government and society, and a producer of this confrontation.
