A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BASIJ CULTURE AND THE CULTURE OF ASHURA

This article is aimed at looking for a relationship between the culture of Ashura and Basij culture. Having this in mind, 59 parameters were recognized to exist in the culture of Ashura and 207 for Basij culture. The parameters of the culture of Ashura have been distributed in two categories, namely, parameters attributed to the culture of Ashura with 21 titles and those attributed to the Ashura-inspired culture (those inspired by the Holy Prophet’s progeny and Imam Hossein’s companions with 38 titles. Also, the parameters of Basij culture were distributed in two categories, namely, Imam Khomeini’s views with 24 parameters and the Supreme Leader’s with 183 parameters. Then, the parameters inferred by the statements made by the Supreme Leader were divided in two categories- namely individual/Basiji with 135 parameters and organization/Basij with 48 parameters.After that the individual/Basiji parameters were distributed in three groups: ideologic (with 63 parameters), revolutionary (with 36 parameters), and functional (with 36 parameters), and organization/Basij parameters were distributed between two groups, namely value groups (with 26 parameters) and functional groups (with 22 parameters). Finally, the parameters common between the culture of Ashura and Basij culture have been presented using two comparative tables that also show the deep commonalities between the two cultures, in a way that Basij culture alleged to completely match the culture of Ashura was proved.