Tag: wilayat al-faqih

Iran’s Exiled Scholar Who Impeached Khamenei

An exiled Iranian mujtahid — imprisoned twice, banned across Iranian platforms, and teaching at Duke University — gives his most candid assessment of the Islamic Republic, Velayat-e Faqih, and what the Trump-Netanyahu war has done to Iran’s democratic reform movement.
He breaks down the two dimensions of the Islamic Republic — where it succeeded and where it failed — and shares his final position: a secular democratic state. He reveals why he impeached Khamenei, why Iran’s hardliners, US Republicans, and Israeli Zionists are aligned against peace, and why Trump bears responsibility for the war.

The ‘Ayatollah’ opposing US imperialism, and Iran’s Islamic ‘regime’

Kadivar offers a rare insider critique of Iran: opposing US imperialism and Israeli aggression, while also challenging the authoritarianism of the Islamic Republic from within Shia theology itself. He traces his own journey – arrested under both the Shah and the Islamic Republic – and explains how the revolutionary promise of freedom, democracy, and justice was only partially realized. We explore how guardianship of the jurist reshaped Iran. This conversation takes a deep look into how power, religion, personalities, and competing visions of destiny have interacted to make Iran, Iran.