Context: Current Events in Iran

At the start of the Iranian New Year in March 2009, President Barack Obama sent a video message to the people of Iran offering "the promise of a new beginning" that is "grounded in mutual respect." (See coverage of the video release in the New York Times and CNN.) Iran has been in turmoil since its presidential elections on June 12, 2009 (Wikipedia's article on the Iranian presidential election provides many links to coverage of the candidates, the election, and the protests and events that have unfolded in its wake.)

DISC FACULTY EXPERTS ON IRAN

Duke is fortunate to have Mohsen Kadivar and Negar Mottahedeh, both experts on Iran, on its faculty. Kadivar is a theologian, philosopher and critic of the current government in Iran. Since the June 2009 elections, Kadivar has been speaking about the situation in Iran to both Western and Iranian audiences. See Professor Kadivar in a brief Duke News video clip taped shortly after the Iranian elections. Mottahedeh is an Associate Professor of Literature and Women's Studies, an expert on Iranian film, and author of "Displaced Allegories," a book on post-revolutionary cinema in Iran.

You can find links to some of their recent interviews and media appearances in the column at the right.

Duke News Tip: Contact Information for Mohsen Kadivar and Negar Mottahedeh

Mohsen Kadivar, Visiting Instructor, Department of Religion

Mohsen Kadivar is currently a visiting instructor in Duke's Department of Religion.Kadivar is a prominent Iranian scholar, cleric and critic of the Islamic Republic system in Iran. Because of his criticisms, Kadivar was convicted by the Special Court for Clergy in 1999, and sentenced to eighteen months in prison on charges of having spread false information about Iran's "sacred system of the Islamic Republic" and of helping enemies of the Islamic revolution. He was released from Evin Prison, on July 17, 2000. Kadivar is currently active within the various reform movements of Iran.

Born in Iran in 1959, Kadivar obtained the certificate of Ijtihad (the highest level in Islamic Studies) from Grand Ayatollah H.A. Montazeri at Qom Seminary in 1997. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy and Theology from Tarbiat Modarres University in Tehran in 1999. Kadivar has authored 13 books (in Persian and Arabic) and over 50 articles in Islamic Studies (Philosophy, theology, jurisprudence and political thought). You can find links to many of his publications and interviews on his website.

Kadivar's writing on the theology of freedom has been critical of the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih (Rule of the Supreme Jurist), an innovation in Shi'te political thought instituted in Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. This controversial theory places temporal and spiritual power in the hands of the most qualified religious scholar. Kadivar, together with an increasing number of religious scholars in Iran, have questioned the religious authenticity of this form of autocratic rule. In 1999, Kadivar was convicted by the Special Court for Clergy and sentenced to eighteen months in prison on charges of having spread false information about Iran's "sacred system of the Islamic Republic" and of helping enemies of the Islamic revolution.

Prior to coming to Duke, Kadivar was Associate Professor at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy in Tehran. He was a Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia for 2008-09.

Negar Mottahedeh, Associate Professor, Literature

Negar Mottahedeh is the author of Displaced Allegories: Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema. In this book, Mottahedeh shows that post-Revolutionary Iranian filmmakers were forced to create a new visual language for conveying meaning to audiences. She is also the author of Representing the Unrepresentable: Historical Images of National Reform from the Qajars to the Islamic Republic of Iran (2007). This book earned Mottahedeh the Latifeh Yarshater award, which recognizes scholarship in Iranian Studies that focuses on the condition of women and the promotion of women's rights in Persian-speaking societies. Read Mottahedeh's 2004 article: Off the Grid: Reading Iranian Memoirs in Our Time of Total War.

Mottahedeh has posting about developments in Iran frequently through her Twitter account. Follow Negar on Twitter. In a recent article on the Tehran Bureau blog, Picturing Ourselves: 1953, 1979, 2009, Mottahedeh analyzes images of Iranian women in the public sphere. Mottahedeh's knowledge of social networks and new media are especially relevant for understanding current events in Iran, where Twitter and Facebook are playing such an important role.