How political rights are created from Sharia rules in Iran

Abstract

This article evaluates how political rights, such as the right to vote and the right to elect, are created in Iran. This analysis has been done according to the historical, conceptual, and jurisprudential context in Shi’ite theology. The article argues that Iran’s political rights led to regarding individuals as religious followers rather than citizens. The first reason for this claim is that the meaning of political rights is derived from Shi’ite theological concepts such as Haqq (right) and Velayat (guardianship). The theological meaning of these concepts has led to the deprivation of the political sense of rights and giving them a religious meaning. The second reason is that the content of political rights in Shi’ite jurisprudence has been produced in two ways. One way is when there is no specific Sharia rule for a right, such as the right to vote. In such conditions, Faqihs try to allow this right through Sharia and make these rules permissible. The other way is when the Sharia rules for a specific right already existed, such as the right to elect. Under such circumstances, Faqihs attempted to turn the Sharia rules into political rules by extending them. As a result, the right to vote is authorized from a religious perspective to a religious duty. Furthermore, the right to elect is changed into religious allegiance to politics.