The Lonely War - Nazila Fatih

Subtitled "One Woman's Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran".
What makes this book so interesting is the contextualization of modern Iranian history and politics through Nazila Fatih's life as a reporter on Iran for the New York Times.
It provides insights into the social realities of Iran during the revolutionary period and also the shift in those realities with the passage of time.  It also shows the complexity of the political culture in Iran.  Contrary to Western images, it is not a monolithic dictatorial state structure; there are different branches in the government and they have their different agendas and different relationships to the modernizing movements in Iran.  These branches can be at cross purposes and even work against each other in the many surveillance and prosecutorial activities.
The recent unrest and violence in Iran has been caused by this type of conflict between different branches of the government with varying levels of support from the people of Iran.  The diehard conservative element is headed by Khamenei - this group traces its roots back to the early days of the revolution (though they no longer have much support from the clergy in Qom, who see the need to modernize Shia Islam practice in Iran).  Without support of the people and their "democratically" elected representatives, Khamenei has created an oppresssive force with the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij.  This is a client relationship in that Khamenei can use oil revenue to provide benefits and perks in exchange for their support.  On the other side are the main body of clergy, the reformists (both secular and religious, and some even tracing their roots back to Khomeni and the original revolution),  the democratically elected Parliament, and the majority of the people.

This situation is another example of the saying, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely". Khomein set up the system so that the absolute power of last word rests with the religious leader of the country.  This amount of power contains an invitation to abuse.  Khamenei is abusing this absolute power to keep himself and his small group in power against the will of the people.  The goal becomes, not just government for the good of the people (however you define it), but the maintenance and continuance of power for its own sake.