Basij's Ashura-Based Identity

Identity means awareness, a sense of belonging, preparedness to defend a self-identity which differs from one person or group to an other in size and degree. If someone had this kind of awareness about himself, he can consider himself as having an independent identity, and make himself be considered this way. Sense of iden tity involves a different set of feelings that includes feeling of unity, feeling of compatibility, sense of belonging, feeling of valued-ness, and feeling of independence. Identity takes on a social and compre hensive form, when it comes to a social establishment called Ba sij, which holds true for all its correlates. Ashura is a basic identity, to the same extent that Revolutionary Basij is a basic one. Basij’s Ashura-based identity includes the sense of belonging and loyalty as well as preparedness for defense and behaviors, all of which originate from the Ashura event. Beside this identity, the fact that the Iranian civilization has a longtime attachment to the ideal inspired by Imam Hussein is today an institutionalized one that promises the rebuilding of the modern Islamic civilization upon the foundation of what humanity has inherited from Mahdavia cause and Ashura. Ba sij’s sense of identity is more based on the fact that the religious teachings do revolve in a consolidate state around the Ashura event and the Iranian modern identity-making process that was started by Imam Khomeini. Furthermore, the continuous efforts made by the Supreme Leader to conduct this line of thinking have caused Basij’s nature, parameters and model of behavior shaped by its Ashurabased identity. This article plans to explain the rules, relations, and the behaviors formed on the basis of Basij’s revolutionary and Ashura-based identity in the Islamic Iran.