Islamic Awakening or Pro-Democracy Movement How Tehran and Washington Framed the Egyptian Uprising

Abstract

As influential players in the Middle East’s regional politics, both American and Iranian officials are trying to define and interpret the wave of Arab revolutions in a way that resonates with their own political narratives. In other words, they want to frame the situation in a way that matches their respective ideologies, which, in turn, would best suit their political interests. I use framing theory to illustrate the frameworks through which top American and Iranian leaders try to portray those regional changes, especially in Egypt. For this purpose, framing theory and its applications will be discussed first. Then, the views of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Barack Obama regarding the regional revolts will be analyzed. Based on Robert Entman’s four-element formulation of framing, each side’s framing is demonstrated through its projection of (1) problem definition, (2) causal interpretation, (3) moral evaluation, and (4) solution/treatment recommendation.The analysis shows how the two sides frame a single phenomenon in extremely different ways: one portrays it as a sign of Islamic awakening against the decades-old rule of western-backed dictators, whereas the other frames it as a pro-democracy movement heralding the emergence of new democratic states. The paper concludes by arguing that the dominance of each government’s frames will pave the way for it to claim the uprisings within its own narrative and thus influence the situation on the ground in their desired way.