As part of an effort to counter calls for more liberal reform and democracy, the Iranian Information Ministry in 2008 began airing a television propaganda message that condemned Sharp as a...

As part of an effort to counter calls for more liberal reform and democracy, the Iranian Information Ministry in 2008 began airing a television propaganda message that condemned Sharp as a “theoretician of civil disobedience and velvet revolutions.” That was a reference to the fact that many democracy movements in Eastern Europe during the 1980s and 1990s used ideas and tactics found in Sharp’s work. The young people who led the Egyptian revolution in 2011 were also influenced by his work, leading the New York Times to comment, “For the world’s despots, [Sharp’s] ideas can be fatal” (Stohlberg 2011).