Objectives To demonstrate that qualitative research is both possible and desirable in closed, nondemocratic settings such as Iran, research sites seemingly hostile to the outside investigator. Methods Using an ethnographical approach consisting of document analysis, semi‐structured interviews, and participant observation, the project documents the development of postrevolutionary schooling in Iran by mapping ruptures within the pedagogical state's project following the 1979 Revolution as well as gaps between the state's formal goals and the private use and appropriation of the public school system by ordinary families from below. Results A willingness to embrace contingency and flexibility in the field yielded an original and empirically rich data set that in turn inspired four general rules for research in authoritarian and nonauthoritarian countries: do not panic; make it boring; self‐reflect; and panic, if just a little. Conclusions By engaging in research in authoritarian and nonauthoritarian settings, researchers demonstrate a commitment to drawing out local complexity and agency, producing findings that are likely to unsettle and disrupt existing literatures drenched with the weight of tropes and unexamined assumptions, incrementally leading to analysis that is restorative of “the local” even as it informs nonlocal audiences outside of the case.