The Religious Elite, the Bazaar, the State and the Crowd in Iran

This chapter introduces Iranian groups, the religious elite (mojtaheds), traditional merchants (bazaar) and Iranian “crowd” (lutis and tollabs) who were mobilized during social movement activity in Iran. These groups often formed overlapping relations with one another in Iranian society, but each had different interests that had to be negotiated during social movement activity. Some groups, such as the clerical elite, were well positioned to negotiate among many different factions during social movement activity. These organizations represent traditional mobilizing structures of Iranian societies (see McCarthy and Zald 1973; 1977). During protest periods, coalitions between traditional groups were a part of an opportunity structure that helped facilitate social movement activity (see McAdam 1996).