Rasool Nafisi

WASHINGTON—Browsing through the Iranian journals and listening to the current discourses in that country, one might be shocked to find out that a major debate is under way over whether the government is entitled to “cut the right arm and the left leg” of those opposing the regime. But such is the state of discourse in a country that enjoyed a century of secular life and a penal code largely copied from those in France and Belgium, before it became an Islamic state. more»

Rasool Nafisi

WASHNGTON—In early January, following the demise of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, the Society of Teachers and Researchers at Qom Seminaries, a pro-statel clerical body, announced that it did not acknowledge cleric Yusuf Sanei as an ayatollah. The reason for such a decision, like many other seemingly religious decisions of the Islamic regime, was rather political. A great part of politics in today’s Iran is based on clerical rivalry and personal innuendo rooted in the clerical community. more»

Rasool Nafisi

Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri’s death at the age of 87 at his home in Qum coincided with the second day of the Islamic month of Moharram, when the Shiites’ passion for the martyrdom of Imam Hussein rises. IRNA, the official news agency of Iran, reported his death without even using his title (ayatollah), but the title was used later in an obituary by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. In his short message, he mentioned the high religious status of his former rival, and his struggles for the Islamic republic, but Khamenei more»

Rasool Nafisi

WASHINGTON–A natural division of labor has taken place within the Green Movement in Iran. As much as Mir Hossein Moussavi is the moral and organizational leader of the movement, cleric Mehdi Karroubi inspires the movement with his courage, and perseverance. The third leg of the leadership is Ayatollah Hassan-Ali Montazeri, who has acquired the de facto position of the religious patriarch of the movement. more»

Rasool Nafisi

WASHINGTON–The rushed support of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed June election, and the announcement of his reelection the day after polls closed, has damaged the credibility of the velayat faghih (the rule of qualified jurist) beyond repair. The legitimacy of the regime, already in question by modern urbanites, now has become the target of daily attacks by the people who once were its ardent supporters. more»