Shia in Egypt and Islamic Republic of Iran's Cultural Diplomacy

With promoting the importance of cultural activities and prominency of cultural role in foreign policy and theories of international politics and also in function of diplomatic agencies of governments, today discussions such as soft power and cultural diplomacy as the basis and structure of short-term and long-term planning for nations have been taken into consideration. This research examines infrastructures of Islamic republic of Iran's soft power and its fields of cultural diplomacy in Egypt. After preliminary studies about the history of Shiites presence in Egypt, Shia culture in this country is examined. Then several information are provided about groups of Shias in Egypt, Shiite presence in contemporary Egypt, current status of Shiites in Egypt, Egyptian figures in line with Shiism and Shia organizations in this country. In theoretical framework of this paper, the concept of soft power and the main sources of its supply are defined and described and then measures of soft-based cultural diplomacy (based on soft power) are introduced. The main questions are about the foundations of cultural relations between Egypt and Iran, and in what way Islamic Republic of Iran can create a permanent relation in region by relying on the stable and strong social-cultural foundations. Hypothesis of this paper is that "creating a strong and stable relationship between Iran and Egypt depends on Iran’s attempt to develop a comprehensive cultural diplomacy to identify and influence Egypt's social-cultural fields. And in the last part of this paper, the necessities and challenges of Iran’s foreign policy in Egypt are considered.