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Editor’s Note:  Aram Anahid is the penname of a learned Baha’i intellectual in Iran, who has previously contributed to Iran Press Watch and other sites (e.g. Iranian.com).  Iran Press Watch is pleased to publish this fascinating, original and thought-provoking essay by this young intellectual of the Baha’i community of Iran.  (Incidentally, what appears below is not a translation; rather it is original composition of Aram Anahid.)

By Aram Anahid

Thirty years of theocratic rule has had a profound effect on Iranian religiosity. During the late 1970s, Iranians, who have long drawn upon their deep religious heritage to achieve a sense of identity, united behind their religious leaders to overthrow the Pahlavi dynasty and unanimously vote for the installation of an Islamic republic in its stead. While it is now generally accepted that few had any idea of what the Islamic Republic that Ayatollah Khomeini had endorsed was supposed to look like, the general impression at the time was that Iran’s Shi’ite clergy were destined to create a uniquely Islamic democracy - one which was rooted in Islam’s liberating principles and values rather than Western ideas and thoughts.

In effect, the Islamic Republ... >>>