Abstract:
This article investigates the similarities and differencesbetween the Egyptian revolution of 25th of January 2011 and Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. The current article brings into attention a comparison of what led to the two revolutions, the nature of the two dominant regimes in Iran and Egypt before the revolutions and their resources for the revolutions. The fourth generation of the revolutionary theories is the theoretical framework of the article, i.e., the theory of revolutionary process and also the theory of political opportunity within the framework of the sociology of social movements. Based on these theories, the main question of this article is that what are the similarities and differences in the political structures of Iran and Egypt that have helped provide the appropriate opportunity for the victory of these revolutionary movements? And, how the resulted political opportunities from the Iranian revolution affected that of the Egyptians? The application of these theories through comparing the two revolutions shows that the Iranian revolution provided the adequate political opportunity for the Egyptians in such a way that it resulted in victory over a shorter period of time with a much less cost.
Machine summary:
"Based on these theories, the main question of this article is that what are the similarities and differences in the political structures of Iran and Egypt that have helped provide the appropriate opportunity for the victory of these revolutionary movements?
Revolutionary Mobilization, Political Opportunity, Post-Islamism, Islamism, Revolutionary Action, Comparative Study Keywords: *Farzad Poursaeld ts a Faculty Member of the Research Institute of Strategic Studies In Tehran, Discourse: An Iranian Quarterly, Vol. I 0, Nos. 1-2, Winter-Spring 2012: 119-143 Introduction The present article looks into the similarities and differences between the Egyptian revolution of 25th of January 20 I 1 and Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The fact that the army declared neutrality and that several of its cadres joined the revolutionaries within the course of the revolutions in both Iran and Egypt are the results of the same feature, both the person-based and neo-patrimonial nature of the ruling regimes.
The Islamic Revolution of Iran provided an important political opportunity for the Revolutionary movement of Egypt so that it would be able to achieve its most important success, exclusively, the downfall of the regime of Hosni Mubarak in a shorter period of time and at much less a cost.
Again, the Islamic Revolution of Iran in this connection became a source of inspiration to make use of this political opportunity, particularly when considering the differences between the action method of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jihadist groups of April the 6th movement in fighting the regime of Mubarak.
Finally, Iran's Islamic Revolution provided an appropriate political opportunity for Egypt's revolutionary movement to move towards victory at a shorter time and with less costs."