Houchang Chehabi: The Legal Aspects of Religious Diversity in Iran, SOAS, University of London
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 12/06/2013

This lecture by Houchang Chehabi (Boston University) entitled "The Legal Aspects of Religious Diversity in Iran" was given on 15 May 2013 at the Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS, University of London.

More information about the event: http://bit.ly/174bEPG
More information about the Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS, University of London: http://www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/

Further details:
This lecture examines the legal status of those Iranian citizens who do not adhere to the official religion of the Islamic Republic of Iran. On the basis of the relevant sections of the Constitution, criminal law, and civil law, it is argued that Iran's citizenry is divided into four groups, each with a distinct set of rights. This situation is in some ways analogous to that of Apartheid-era South Africa.

Houchang Chehabi is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University. He has taught at Harvard and UCLA, and has been a visiting professor at the University of St Andrews and the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa. He has published two books, Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini (1990) and Distant Relations: Iran and Lebanon in the Last 500 Years (2006). He has also co-edited Politics, Society, and Democracy: Comparative Studies (1995), Sultanistic Regimes (1998), and Iran's Constitutional Revolution: Popular Politics, Cultural Transformations, and Transnational Connections (2010).