Kadivar is one of the most radical critics of clerical power in his country, guaranteed mainly by the so-called “Guardianship of Islamic Jurists”, (in Persian velayat e-faqih), a doctrine created by Khomeini, according to which a Muslim jurist, as an expert on shari’a, which is emanated directly by God, has the duty to oversee all work done by parliament to ensure it is in conformity with what the jurist considers to be a correct interpretation of shari’a. With this system the Guardian Council effectively manages to block all laws opposing the power of clerics and their allies.
Before completing his doctorate in philosophy and Islamic theology at Tarbiat Modarres University in Teheran, where he later also taught, in 1997 Kadivar graduated in ijtihād, the principle and practice dear to many Muslim reformists, which addresses the importance of the personal, rational and independent interpretative effort made in addressing Islamic juridical precepts and shari’a before approving a law or a fatwa. Its opposite is the taqlid, a principle of emulation and obedience. Interpretations and exegesis of the Koran undertaken in a reformist key, presented in many essays and books, increased the Iranian religious establishment’s hostility towards the philosopher, who, in 1998 was sentenced by the Special Clerical Court to eighteen months imprisonment in Evin prison.
Released on June 17th, 2000, he continued to actively work in favour of reform in Iran, risking his position as a professor at Tarbiat Modarres University. Under pressure from the regime, he was obliged to resign in 2007, accepting a less public position at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy’s Department of Islamic Philosophy. He is currently a visiting professor at Duke University in the United States. He had already spent the 2008-2009 academic year at the University of Virginia.
His most important books, all written in Persian, include Hokumat-e Velayati (The Rule of Islamic Jurists), Nazariye-haye Dowlat dar Feqh-e Shi’a (Perspectives on Government in Shiite Theology), also translated into Arabic, Hokumat-e Entesabi (Government by Appointment) – a trilogy – and Daqdqde-haye Hokumat-e Dini (Crisis of the Religious Government). Although he played a very important role in the evolution of Iranian religious reformism, most of Mohsen Kadivar’s books are still relatively unknown in the rest of the world. For this reason we would like to remind our readers that there are a series of translations into English on the philosopher’s personal website, www.kadivar.com.