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The article explores cultural nostalgia in Persia as a means of political dissent. Noted is how the political and social culture in the country has changed since the founding of Iran's Islamic Republic in 1979, which shifted the country's ancient culture to a theocratic dictatorship. Other topics include nostalgia for the Persian Empire's pre-Islamic past among Iranian exiles and an extensive look a survey that took place in California that aimed to gather more data about Iranian-American views of the Islamic Republic.

Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, sought to chart out an independent course for Iran in regional and global affairs: 'neither East, nor West, the Islamic Republic.' Khomeini's successors have often attempted to compromise with the West by undertaking economic reforms aimed at reintegrating Iran into the imperialistic capitalist world economy. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed in mid-July 2015, brings Iran new opportunities but it also greatly compromises the ideological, philosophical and economic foundations of Khomeini's Islamic Republic. After four decades of anti-imperialist struggle, Iran has now largely come back to the fold of imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]