Liberalism in Iran - Liberalism in The Islamic Republic: 1979-present

Liberalism in The Islamic Republic: 1979-present

The implementation of liberal values in Iran following the Islamic Revolution has been characterized by extreme shifts, both negative and positive. Establishment of the Islamic republic under the guidance of the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 merits the term “revolution” because it effected the complete dismantling of the shah’s political regime, the re-making of Iran’s foreign policy and alignments, and a cultural transformation. In the months following the departure of the shah, various ethnic and linguistic groups forcefully put forward claims for greater recognition in the new polity than had ever been afforded them under the shah. As Ayatollah Khomeini and the clergy consolidated their grip on the new state, mainly through the elimination of leftists and liberal moderates such as Bani Sadr and the venerable Mehdi Bazargan, these claims were denied. Revolutionary Guards were dispatched to crush Kurdish, Turkomen and other groups agitating for a new place in the republic. When the Iran-Iraq war broke out in September 1980, this kind of sub-national agitation became at once blasphemy and high treason.

Although pluralism is officially condemned, the regime was also particularly characterized by a denial of the principal of popular sovereignty. Sovereignty is God’s alone, and although in the Islamic republic the people elect their political representatives, those who rule are ultimately responsible to Allah rather than to the people. Rulership cannot be inherited: rather, it is the duty of the council of the foremost clerics to judge and select the best-qualified leaders to the ends of protecting the believers, applying God’s law (sharia), and preserving the republic. Moreover, a Constitutional Council reviews all parliamentary legislation to ensure that it conforms to the shari’a and the Iranian constitution. The principal concepts in operation here are majra’-i-taqlid (locus of mass following) and the “trusteeship of the jurisprudents” (vilayet al-faqih), whereby elite members of the clergy, based on the strength of their learning, ensure that the people, in practicing Islamic democracy, do not stray from the straight path. The theory of vilayet-e faqih, in some respects, represents the continuation of the imamate doctrine in Shiite Islam, for it performs the main functions of the imam’s governance. It features the element of rational deputyship according to the people’s choice, which differs from the Shia Imam who is divinely appointed by Allah. However, the main factor – the individual rule of a charismatic leader – remains unchanged.