An excellent analogy by Amir Afkhami draws from Iran's 1904 cholera epidemic. Clerical pressure forced the government to backtrack from quarantining pilgrims and cities, wreaking the economic havoc that would precipitate the 1905-6 Constitutional Revolution. Today, Iran's government is not in a rut with its religious establishment; the religious establishment is the government and must play its cards carefully if it is to survive.
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