The Complexity of Leadership of Islamic Republic of Iran

Mohsen Kadivar is an Iranian dissident in exile, public intellectual, Muslim theologian, Nanner O. Koehane Distinguished Visiting Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, visiting Research Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University, and a global ethics fellow with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

His main intellectual interests and topics of publications include: Iranian Studies focused on post-revolutionary Iran, classical and modern Shi’a theology, legal theories and political thought, classical Islamic/Iranian philosophy, human rights and democracy in Islam/Iran. Kadivar published twelve books as sole author, and seven more as co-author and editor in Persian and Arabic. After his articles and books were banned in Iran, he published nine e-books.

His most recent Persian books are “Apostasy, Blasphemy, & Religious Freedom in Islam: A Critique Based on Demonstrative Jurisprudence”; “The Impeachment of Iranian Supreme Leader” in two volumes, and “Dissident Aytollahs” in three volumes. His most recent articles in English are “Wilayat al-Faqih and Democracy”, “From Traditional Islam to Islam as an End in Itself”, Revisiting Women’s Rights in Islam: ‘Egalitarian Justice’ in lieu of ‘Deserts-based Justice’, “Routinizing the Iranian Revolution”.  

He studied at the Islamic seminary at Qom ending with a certificate of Ijtihad, (highest degree in Islamic religious tradition), and earned a Ph.D. of Islamic Philosophy and theology from Tarbiate Modarress University in Tehran. Kadivar was in jail 18 months because of his political-religious critiques and was released in July 2000. 

Lecture in EnglishEvent is free and open to the public